VTech hack: Man arrested as part of investigation into cyber crime attack against children’s electronic tablet company

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A 21-year-old man has been arrested as part of a cyber crime investigation into computer hacking which targeted children’s electronic tablet company VTech in which five million customers were affected.

The man was detained in Bracknell, Berkshire, on Tuesday morning on suspicion of “unauthorised access to computer to facilitate the commission of an offence,” and of “causing a computer to perform a function to secure or enable unauthorised access to a program or data,” he South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (Serocu) said in a statement.

Investigators seized a number of electronic items.

VTech said last month the hack involved customer data housed on its Learning Lodge app store database, where customers are able to download apps, learning games, e-books and other educational content to their VTech devices.

At the time of the breach, a hacker gave an anonymous interview to Vice’s Motherboard in which they claimed to have gained access to chat logs and personal information, including pictures of children taken using the devices’ cameras.

VTech said its customer database does not contain any credit card information and VTech does not process or store customer credit card data on the Learning Lodge website, or hold personal ID.

Craig Jones, head of the cyber crime unit at Serocu, said: "Cyber criminality is affecting more and more businesses 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."

Additional reporting by PA