Teen pleads guilty in Microsoft and Valve hacking case

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An organized group stole data from various companies that include Microsoft, Epic Games, Valve and others. While previous members of the group have pleaded guilty, it was only until today that the fourth and final member of the group pleaded guilty to charges of hacking and intellectual property theft.

19-year-old Austin Alcala pleaded guilty to charges of hacking that occurred sometime during 2012 through April of 2014. According to a statement released by the Department of Justice:

The conspirators accessed and stole unreleased software, software source code, trade secrets, copyrighted and pre-release works and other confidential and proprietary information.


In a time where data theft is becoming more rampant, in this instance, client data was not compromised during the attacks. Although it is always difficult to put a price on intellectual property, the value of the stolen data is estimated to range between $100 million to $200 million USD. Alcala will be sentenced in a court of law in July of 2015.

Posted:
Related Forum: Xbox Forum

Source: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/04/02/teen_pleads_guilty_in_microsoft_and_valve_hacking_case/?

Comments

"Teen pleads guilty in Microsoft and Valve hacking case" :: Login/Create an Account :: 58 comments

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LoodPosted:

Rin
bdgr i dont know how a little kid can do this what a poop company

Too bad it wasn't a little kid and it was a guy who knew what he was doing. You're acting as if all companies didn't have an exploit.
I don't think 19 is a little kid...

codsturePosted:

nice to see people are getting in trouble for this

EarnPosted:

He's pretty stupid for stealing data and costing the companys money, he should have just got into there servers and then told them about it and how to fix it.

RinPosted:

bdgr i dont know how a little kid can do this what a poop company

Too bad it wasn't a little kid and it was a guy who knew what he was doing. You're acting as if all companies didn't have an exploit.

MGCPlaysPosted:

i wonder how many years he is going to get

JZXPosted:

I would of applaud them if they only stole from 'Micro'transaction'soft' but damn that guy is intelligent.

lRaaazRPosted:

-LOST- I wonder how many years he'll get. If I was him I'd bulk up for prison.


It's funny how you assume that he isn't already bulk ;)

TritekPosted:

RemeAmaze
Detached It was in 2011, SQL Injection still works on Microsoft. That is embarrassing. For anyone that isn't familiar with SQL, doing it to Microsoft put all our passwords, user data and credit cards etc at BIG risk.


How did you work that one out? Seeing as even if they ran a successful injection, all the important client information is encrypted anyway...


Its not hard to crack it all. All they need is time.

RemeAmazePosted:

Detached It was in 2011, SQL Injection still works on Microsoft. That is embarrassing. For anyone that isn't familiar with SQL, doing it to Microsoft put all our passwords, user data and credit cards etc at BIG risk.


How did you work that one out? Seeing as even if they ran a successful injection, all the important client information is encrypted anyway...

bdgrPosted:

i dont know how a little kid can do this what a poop company