Police in Ontario, Canada have accused a 19-year-old man with exploiting the Heartbleed computer virus to steal personal data of over 900 taxpayers.
Stephen Arthuro Solis-Reyes, a student at the University of Western Ontario, was arrested late Tuesday. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said Solis-Reyes was charged with one count of unauthorized use of a computer and one count of mischief in relation to data.
Solis-Reyes' lawyer, Faisal Joseph, claimed to the CBC that his client turned himself in after police threatened to arrest him in the middle of one of his classes. Days earlier, officers searched the student's residence and seized computer equipment.
The Canada Revenue Agency was forced to shut down its publicly accessible website Friday as the world learned about the Heartbleed computer bug, a previously undiscovered global Internet security vulnerability. On Monday, the agency said 900 social insurance numbers had been compromised.
The RCMP said that it had asked the Canadian Revenue Agency not to make the breach public so that it could pursue leads in the investigation.
Solis-Reyes is due to appear in court July 17.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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