Police said on June 10 they have opened a criminal case against the student for illegally providing or using information on computer and telecommunications networks and for illegally accessing another party's computer network, telecommunications network or electronic device.
The investigation began when the cybersecurity and high-tech crime unit of police in Lam Dong Province, working with the provincial criminal police, spotted anonymous accounts in several private online groups advertising large batches of personal data for sale, including the records of Lam Dong residents. Investigators traced the digital trail to the 10th grader in Nghe An.
According to police, the teenager had no formal training. He taught himself programming through online research, wrote his own software and exploited a security vulnerability to break into the National Immunization Information System, the Ministry of Health's nationwide vaccination registry, and extract the personal data of people across the country. Officers later had him open the data files he had taken.
Investigators say he collected and sold around 20 million personal records but pocketed just over VND100 million. The investigation is ongoing.
