Hanoi police have arrested a 30-year-old man who hacked into the SMS system of an elementary school and tricked hundreds of students into skipping one day of school.
Major Le Ngoc Tri, Chief of Anti-Cybercrime Police in Hanoi, said the culprit Nguyen Cam Tu, from Dong Da District in Hanoi, is a director of a company that designs similar systems for schools.
With intention of ruining the reputation of a competitor company which developed the system for Ha Dinh Primary in Thanh Xuan District in Hanoi, Nguyen Cam Tu hacked the Ha Dinh Elementary School messaging software with a bug and then sent text messages to more than 700 parents on September 5 saying there would be no school the next day.
The text message added that Ha Dinh Primary School would collect VND1.4 million (US$67) for tuition and facility improvement work.
The school then texted the parents an apology and explained the situation after they discovered the hacking. However, more than 180 students were off the following day despite the corrected SMS.
Ha Dinh Primary School leaders decided to report the matter to the police for a thorough investigation.
