SOFIA, July 17 — A 20-year-old Bulgarian cybersecurity worker has been arrested on suspicion of involvement in a hacking attack that stole millions of taxpayers’ personal and financial data, interior ministry officials said today.
The man, who works for a company that protects IT systems against breaches, was detained yesterday afternoon, police cybersecurity chief Yavor Kolev said.
Finance minister Vladislav Goranov apologised to the country yesterday for the attack on servers at the tax agency (NRA), which one researcher said may have compromised nearly every adult’s personal records.
Kolev said investigations were still at an early stage and police were still looking into the possibility that other people were involved.
Officers seized a laptop and other devices from the suspect’s office and home in Sofia and found encrypted data, Kolev added.
“We have detained a suspect. His job was to test computer systems and networks for possible vulnerabilities to prevent attacks,” Kolev told bTV television.
The attack on the tax agency happened at the end of June and compromised about three per cent of its databases, officials said. A person claiming to be a Russian hacker emailed local media on Monday offering access to the stolen data. — Reuters
