Canadian Hacker Arrested in Heartbleed Attack Against CRA

Stephen Arthuro Solis-Reyes, 19, of London, Ont., has been arrested for using the Heartbleed Internet bug to hack into the country’s tax agency, forcing it to delay its tax-filing deadline. The article below goes on to describe the man as intelligent, but his actions seem to prove otherwise.

From the Washtimes here:

In what appears to be the first arrest since the Heartbleed virus was discovered, Royal Canadian Mounted Police said it arrested Stephen Arthuro Solis-Reyes at his London, Ontario, home late Tuesday afternoon.
The teen is accused of using the bug to steal over 900 Social Insurance Numbers from the Canada Revenue Agency, which was forced to temporarily shut down its website after the breach.

“He is an A student and a very, very bright young man,” the teen’s lawyer, Faisal Joseph, said, adding that his client feels “sucker-punched” and is “absolutely devastated” by the charges.

If Mr. Solis-Reyes did commit the crimes he’s accused of, he would be responsible for single-handedly delaying the country’s tax-return deadline by nearly a week. The CRA was forced to push back its tax-filing deadline from April 30 to May 5. Mr. Solis-Reyes could face a maximum of 10 years in prison if found guilty.

Very very bright? Yeah, I don’t think so. Exploiting a vulnerability against your own government just to see if the exploit works was a stupid thing to do. Pretty lulzy though!