Teenager Arrested and Indicted for Hacking Famous Bookstores and Entrance Exam Academies to Extort 80 Million Won...

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A teenager who hacked into a famous online bookstore and entrance exam academy websites to extort money has been brought to trial.

The Cyber Crime Investigation Division of the Seoul Eastern District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Kim Young-mi) announced on the 17th that high school student A (16) was arrested and indicted on the 16th on charges of violating the Information and Communications Network Act and extortion.

According to the prosecution and police, A, a second-year high school student, is accused of hacking into the online bookstore Aladin and another online bookstore to extract encrypted 'decryption keys' that allowed access to about 1.4 million e-books.

A threatened Aladin by saying he would decrypt and distribute the e-books' passwords, extorting approximately 80 million won in Bitcoin and cash.

A is also accused of hacking into the entrance exam academies Sidae Injae and Megastudy to steal 569 video lecture files.

Earlier, the police, considering the seriousness of the crime and the risk of recidivism despite A being a high school student, conducted an arrest investigation and handed him over to the prosecution on the 27th of last month.

A prosecution official stated, "From the initial stage of the investigation, we cooperated closely with the police to carry out the investigation," adding, "Although A is a minor, considering the vast amount of illegally obtained materials and the fact that he extorted a large sum of money from online bookstores, he was arrested and indicted."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.