Skip to main content
If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy.

Leaker sentenced to three years for hacking Nintendo and possession of child porn

The Switch leaker is headed to jail.

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.

Sign in and unlock a world of features

Get access to commenting, homepage personalisation, newsletters, and more!

Related topics
About the Author
Alex Calvin avatar

Alex Calvin

Contributor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist and writer covering the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he launched PC games b2b site PCGamesInsider.biz for Steel Media and has written for the likes of GI.biz, Eurogamer, Kotaku UK, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK. He can be found on Twitter @gamesbizuk.
Comments