A Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer checks a security perimeter in front of the Parliament building in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on February 19, 2009
Federal police said Wednesday they have arrested and charged a 19-year-old man in the theft of 900 Canadian taxpayers' data, which was made vulnerable by the "Heartbleed" bug.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Stephen Arthuro Solis-Reyes was arrested at his London, Ontario home on Tuesday without incident.
He is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday to face charges of mischief and unauthorized use of a computer to steal data from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)'s website.
"It is believed that Solis-Reyes was able to extract private information held by the CRA by exploiting the security vulnerability known as the Heartbleed Bug," the RCMP said in a statement.
The suspect was tracked down within four days after what CRA Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud had described as a serious security breach.
Police said computer equipment was seized at the suspect's home, and that the investigation is still ongoing.
The Canada Revenue Agency said 900 social insurance numbers—personal nine-digit codes required for working or accessing government benefits in Canada—had been stolen last week by "someone exploiting the Heartbleed vulnerability."
Its website was shuttered for several days over concerns about the Heartbleed bug.
It was rebooted over the weekend after a patch was installed.
The recently-discovered flaw in online-data scrambling software OpenSSL allows hackers to eavesdrop on online communications, steal data, impersonate websites and unlock encrypted data.
OpenSSL is commonly used to protect passwords, credit card numbers and other data sent via the Internet.
More than half of websites use the software, but not all versions have the same vulnerability, according to heartbleed.com.
Cybersecurity firm Fox-It estimates that the vulnerability has existed for about two years, since the version of OpenSSL at issue was released.
Explore further:Canadians' tax data stolen in Heartbleed breach
© 2014 AFP
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Javascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript. In order to enable it, please see these instructions.© Phys.org™ 2003-2013, Science X network
Canada police nab young man in Heartbleed data theft56 minutes agoA Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer checks a security perimeter in front of the Parliament building in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on February 19, 2009
Federal police said Wednesday they have arrested and charged a 19-year-old man in the theft of 900 Canadian taxpayers' data, which was made vulnerable by the "Heartbleed" bug.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Stephen Arthuro Solis-Reyes was arrested at his London, Ontario home on Tuesday without incident.
He is scheduled to appear in court on Thursday to face charges of mischief and unauthorized use of a computer to steal data from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)'s website.
"It is believed that Solis-Reyes was able to extract private information held by the CRA by exploiting the security vulnerability known as the Heartbleed Bug," the RCMP said in a statement.
The suspect was tracked down within four days after what CRA Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud had described as a serious security breach.
Police said computer equipment was seized at the suspect's home, and that the investigation is still ongoing.
The Canada Revenue Agency said 900 social insurance numbers—personal nine-digit codes required for working or accessing government benefits in Canada—had been stolen last week by "someone exploiting the Heartbleed vulnerability."
Its website was shuttered for several days over concerns about the Heartbleed bug.
It was rebooted over the weekend after a patch was installed.
The recently-discovered flaw in online-data scrambling software OpenSSL allows hackers to eavesdrop on online communications, steal data, impersonate websites and unlock encrypted data.
OpenSSL is commonly used to protect passwords, credit card numbers and other data sent via the Internet.
More than half of websites use the software, but not all versions have the same vulnerability, according to heartbleed.com.
Cybersecurity firm Fox-It estimates that the vulnerability has existed for about two years, since the version of OpenSSL at issue was released.
Explore further:Canadians' tax data stolen in Heartbleed breach
© 2014 AFP
More from Physics Forums - General Physics
Apr 14, 2014
Personal data for as many as 900 Canadian taxpayers was stolen after being made vulnerable by the "Heartbleed" bug, officials in Ottawa said on Monday.
Apr 11, 2014
Canada's government on Friday ordered all federal department websites vulnerable to the "Heartbleed" bug to be shut down.
Apr 09, 2014
Canada's tax agency shuttered its website Wednesday after warning that encrypted taxpayer data could be vulnerable to the "Heartbleed" bug.
Apr 14, 2014
British parenting website Mumsnet is the latest organisation to have been hacked due to the "Heartbleed" bug, founder Justine Roberts revealed on Monday.
Apr 11, 2014
The "Heartbleed" flaw in Internet security is as critical as the name implies and wider spread than first believed. Warnings about the danger exposed early this week reached widening circles on Thursday, with everyone from website o ...
Apr 11, 2014
The US National Security Agency on Friday denied a report claiming it was aware of and even exploited the "Heartbleed" online security flaw to gather critical intelligence.
23 hours ago
The heartache from the Heartbleed Internet flaw is not over, and some experts say the fix may lead to online disruption and confusion.
Apr 15, 2014
(Phys.org) —As companies scrambled in recent days to address the latest cybersecurity bug known as Heartbleed, researchers at The University of Texas at Dallas had a solution that fixes the vulnerability, ...
Apr 14, 2014
Some 18 percent of US Internet users have had important personal data such as bank account information stolen and the problem appears to be getting worse, a survey showed Monday.
Apr 14, 2014
Nicole Braun, who will be graduating in May with a PhD in Information Systems, set out to understand why many home users do not adequately protect themselves online, despite extensive media coverage about the risks.
Apr 13, 2014
Germany's aeronautics and space research centre has for months been the target of a suspected cyber attack by a foreign intelligence service, a German news weekly reported Sunday.
Apr 13, 2014
Disclosing vulnerabilities in commercial and open source software is in the national interest and shouldn't be withheld from the public unless there is a clear national security or law enforcement need, President Barack Obama's ...
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Florida State University researchers have identified a new syndrome called "osteosarcopenic obesity" that links the deterioration of bone density and muscle mass with obesity.
Javascript is currently disabled in your web browser. For full site functionality, it is necessary to enable Javascript. In order to enable it, please see these instructions.© Phys.org™ 2003-2013, Science X network