Twelve-year-old hacks gov’t websites, trades info with Anonymous

A 12-year-old Canadian boy has pleaded guilty to hacking government websites – he knocked some of them out for days – and causing damages of about $60,000 in an incident that dates back to spring 2012.

The fifth grader, who is too young to be named, hacked websites belonging to the Montreal Police, the Quebec Institute of Public Health and the Chilean government, according to reports. The child exploited security flaws to gain access to databases, flooded websites with denial-of-service attacks and defaced websites.

The boy, who revealed how he carried out the attacks, said he traded the information to members of hacktivist collective Anonymous in return for video games. His lawyer said there was no political purpose.