Canada Arrests Teen in Heartbleed Hack

Ontario suspect, 19, accused of stealing data from Canada's revenue agency
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 16, 2014 5:34 PM CDT
Canada Arrests Teen in Heartbleed Hack
   (Shutterstock)

A 19-year-old computer whiz in Canada has been charged with taking advantage of the Heartbleed Internet breach to hack into the nation's version of the IRS, reports the BBC. Stephen Arthuro Solis-Reyes of London, Ontario, is accused of exploiting the flaw to steal 900 social insurance numbers from the Canada Revenue Agency. Solis-Reyes is a computer-science student at the University of Western Ontario, and as a high school student he created an app to solve Soduku puzzles, reports the Toronto Globe and Mail.

It's not clear when the theft of the numbers took place, but Canadian authorities promise to notify all those affected and to provide credit-monitoring services. The CRA temporarily shut down its online systems—amid tax-filing crunch time—but all are now back in operation. Meanwhile, a UK parenting website called Mumsnet has posted an explanation of how it got hacked because of Heartbleed, too. (More Heartbleed stories.)

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