LONDON–Police here have arrested a man suspected of being behind the hacking of toymaker VTech.
While the company is not in the financial services space, authorities have indicated that the tactics used in hacking VTech are similar to those used in other breaches, police have said. The 21-year-old man, whose identity has not been released, has been charged with “hacking offenses” under section 2 of Britain’s Computer Misuse Act 1990, which refers to "unauthorized access with intent to commit or facilitate commission of further offenses."
VTech says the breach resulted in profiles relating to 11.2 million people being exposed, including 4.9 million adults' accounts and 6.4 million children's profiles.
Authorities said the hack of VTech used a SQL injection attack and is similar to how London telecom giant TalkTalk was also breached. In that breach information on nearly 157,000 customers was compromised, including 15,000 customers' bank account information. Five other people have already been arrested in the hacking of TalkTalk, ranging in age from 15-20.