17-year-old suspected of hacking school systems

A 17-year-old boy arrested for uploading illegal software is suspected of hacking into the computer system of Saga Prefecture’s board of education.

Tokyo police also believe he gained access to a senior high school’s intranet system in the western Japanese prefecture.

The boy, who lives in the city of Saga, was arrested earlier this month on suspicion of uploading software onto the Internet that allows users to watch pay TV programs for free.

Tokyo police say they have found data on the boy’s personal computer that came from the Saga school and education board. The information includes the names, addresses and grades of students in Saga.

Only teachers are authorized to have access to that information.

Police say the boy admitted accessing those systems 3 times.

On Monday, the boy was served a fresh arrest warrant on suspicion of illegally accessing the prefecture’s computer systems.

The Saga board of education launched its SEI-Net system 3 years ago at a cost of about 13 million dollars. It has been providing high school students with tablet computers to promote digital education.

Source and image: NHK