A 21-year-old man arrested this morning in England, local time, is the first suspect to be detained in relation to the security breach that exposed millions of children’s profiles in November
DANNY.LEE@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 16 December, 2015, 12:27pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 16 December, 2015, 12:31pm
Personal details of more than six million children were exposed after Hong Kong toymaker VTech was hacked in November. Photo: Reuters
British police have arrested a 21-year-old man as part of a global investigation into the hacking of Hong Kong educational toymaker VTech, which exposed personal data of millions of children and their parents.
The 21-year-old man was arrested this morning, local time, in the southern English town of Bracknell, police said in a statement.
It is believed to be the first arrest since the data breach in November that exposed the personal details of more than six million children including their names, genders and birthdays.
The man, whose name or nationality was not released, was arrested on suspicion of two offences relating to breaches under the 1990 computer misuse law that covers the “unauthorised access” of a computer to commit a crime.
“We are still at the early stages of the investigation and there is still much work to be done,” said Craig Jones, head of the cybercrime unit at the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit.
The massive hack on VTech marked the biggest corporate cybersecurity breach in Hong Kong since 2011. It also ranks as the largest known targeted hack on children’s data worldwide.
READ MORE: Hacking of Hong Kong’s VTech may prove worst cybersecurity breach of 2015 in Asia
Earlier this month, the educational toy maker said there were a total of 4.8 million parent accounts and 6.4 million related children’s profiles affected by the hack of its Learning Lodge app store customer database and Kid Connect servers.
VTech, which is based in Tai Po, and Hong Kong police have been contacted for comment.
“Cyber criminality is affecting more and more business around the world and we continue to work with our partners to thoroughly investigate, often very complex cases,” Jones said.
“We will continue to work closely with our partners to identify those who commit offences and hold them to account.”
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1891812/uk-police-arrest-man-over-mass-hacking-hong-kong-toy-maker
