A Nintendo leaker Ryan “RyanRocks” Hernandez has been sentenced to three years in prison. According to the United States Department of Justice, Hernandez is going to be spending the next three years in jail, followed by seven years of supervised release. He’ll also need to register as a sex offender. In 2016, Hernandez and an associate used phishing to steal a Nintendo employee’s credentials, allowing them access to confidential information. This included information about the company’s upcoming Switch console. An investigation into the hack led FBI agents to get in touch with Hernandez at his parents’ house in October 2017, where he apparently promised to “stop any further malicious activity.” He also apparently confirmed he understood the outcome of any future hacking. The following year, he went back to his life of crime, discussing his hacking prowess online on top of operating a chat room called Ryan’s Underground Hangout. Here he discussed Nintendo and ways to steal information from the platform holder. The FBI searched his home in June 2019, seizing his electronic devices and hardware used to access pirated games. On top of confidential Nintendo information, Hernandez also had more than 1,000 videos and pictures of child pornography in a folder named, um, “Bad Stuff.” In February of this year, he pled guilty to hacking into Nintendo’s servers and downloading and possessing child porn. On top of going to prison and having to register as a sex offender, Hernandez has agreed to pay Nintendo $259,323 in damages.
