Autistic man, 24, spared jail for Nintendo cyber attacks after court is told 'he can't help himself'

Victim: Nintendo, makers of the Switch console, faced £1.4m bill
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A computer hacker caused £3 million of damage in cyber-attacks on Microsoft and Nintendo after he was spared prosecution for a notorious data breach involving more than six million children, a court heard.

Zammis Clark, 24, hacked into the servers of Hong Kong-based toy firm Vtech in 2015 and gained access to millions of customer accounts, including names and addresses, download histories and profile pictures.

The company was forced to suspend its shares after the breach, and admitted more than 10 million accounts had been compromised.

But Clark, who confessed to carrying out the hack from his family home in Bracknell, Berkshire, was given just a police caution when Vtech — under fire over its cyber security — refused to assist in prosecuting him.

Blackfriars crown court heard yesterday that Clark, who is on the autistic spectrum, was the architect of a 2017 cyber-attack on tech giant Microsoft, causing up to $2 million (£1.5 million) of damage when he accessed software under development, downloaded 43,000 files and posted information online to allow others to join the hack.

Prosecutor Dickon Reid said: “He published on an internet chatroom the fact he had hacked into the system, and by publishing that a number of other hackers from France, Germany, Ireland, Slovakia, the United States and the United Arab Emirates accessed the computer server.”

The breach, which included uploading malware, was traced back to Clark’s computer and detectives raided his home in June 2017.

Despite being on police bail, Clark then carried out a near-identical hack in March 2018 on games firm Nintendo, stealing more than 2,000 user names and passwords.

Mr Reid told the court the attack was not discovered until two months later, and cost Nintendo £1.4 million in repairs to its systems.

Clark, who pleaded guilty to computer hacking charges, was sentenced alongside website designer Thomas Hounsell, 26, who admitted joining in the Microsoft attack.

Clark was allowed to sit in the well of the court next to his mother for the sentencing hearing, as Judge Alexander Milne QC heard he suffers from “face blindness” as part of his autism and struggles to make friends.

His barrister, Charles Burton, said Clark’s hacking is akin to an addiction and he “couldn’t help himself.”

The judge gave Clark a 15-month suspended jail sentence and said he accepted Clark and Hounsell “didn’t see them as attacks” at the time. But he compared the breaches to house burglaries and added: “You are entering someone else’s property.”

The judge agreed to spare Clark from prison for the sake of his parents, who now have measures to prevent him reoffending online. “They are to be commended for the love, care and support they have rendered him”, he added. Hounsell was given a six-month suspended jail sentence.

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