Police in Japan arrested the teenage hacker who breached Monappy and stole over $125,000 from Monacoin wallets.

As technology improves, it seems young people are the ones who best understand it. This is seen by older people having issues with video conferencing, setting up online accounts, or figuring out how to stream Netflix. The result is that these older people often turn to their children or grandchildren to get it all figured out. (When I was younger, this was reflected in who could actually set the timer on a VCR.) Another example is that most hackers are young, and one such hacker, who is only 18, was recently arrested in Japan.

Teenage Hacker Caught

Between August 14 and September 1 of 2018, someone breached the security of Monappy, a popular social network in Japan. The hacker then stole over 73,000 Monacoins (MONA) from hot wallets. All told, just over 7,700 users were impacted by the theft.

The value of the Monacoins stolen was 14 million yen (or about $125,000 USD). After a lengthy investigation, police arrested the hacker, who turned out to be only 18-years-old. His name is not being released as he is legally a minor.

Not Too Many Tools Needed

The hacker confessed his crime to the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. Turns out that all he used to hack the social network was a smartphone, his own skills, and the Tor browser. (Apparently, Tor is not so private as one would think.)

The teenager found a weakness in the Monappy network in which the system would malfunction if cryptocurrency transfers were repeated over a short time. He then spammed transfer requests to himself, which then overwhelmed the network. The end result was that each attack would put more currency into his account.

As part of his confession, the teenager told the police:

I felt like I’d found a trick no one knows and did it as if I were playing a video game.

After he accumulated funds in his Monappy account, he transferred them to another cryptocurrency exchange, which he then converted into another crypto and bought some items, such as a smartphone handset.

While this hack is small compared to those who have hit cryptocurrency exchanges over the last year, it is refreshing to see the culprit being caught.

It should also be noted that this is the first time in Japan where charges are being filed against someone for causing cryptocurrency losses. Perhaps the Monappy site will go back up as it has been down since the breach last year. Currently, Monacoin is trading at $0.51 with a market cap of $34 million.

Are you surprised that the Monappy hacker was a teenager? Let us know in the comments below.

Images courtesy of Pixabay.