There’s been an arrest in connection with the VTech hack that made headlines for involving 6.4 million children’s profiles. Much of the early disclosure about the hack was due to the hacker reaching out to Motherboard to tell them what he had done and what he had obtained. Thankfully, he seemed more interesting in exposing the infosecurity problem than in misusing the data in any way, but it still sent VTech, law enforcement, and a lot of concerned parents scrambling.
Now the South East Regional Serious Organized Crime Unit (SEROCU) has released a statement indicating that there’s been an arrest in the case. The unnamed 21-year-old was arrested in Bracknell earlier today on suspicion of unauthorized access to a computer to facilitate the commission of an offense, in violation of Section 2 of the UK’s Computer Misuse Act of 1990, and on suspicion of causing a computer to perform a function to secure/enable unauthorized access to a program/data, contrary to Section 1 of the Computer Misuse Act of 1990.
The unnamed man’s electronic devices have been seized for examination.
Craig Jones, Head of the Cyber Crime Unit at SEROCU, said: “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.
“We are still at the early stages of the investigation and there is still much work to be done. We will continue to work closely with our partners to identify those who commit offences and hold them to account.
“We are pursuing cyber criminals using the latest technology and working with businesses and academia to further develop specialist investigative capabilities to protect and reduce the risk to the public.
“Cyber crime is an issue which has no boundaries and affects people on a local, regional and global level.
“I would like to urge everyone to check their home and business computer security and follow the advice available on sites such as cyberstreetwise.com and getsafeonline.org.
“Finally I would urge anyone who has information in regards to cyber offenses to report them to Action Fraud at www.actionfraud.police.uk or anonymously calling Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or online at www.crimestoppers-uk.org.”