Jun 06 (NHK) - A 14-year-old boy from Osaka, western Japan, has been arrested for allegedly creating a type of computer virus called "ransomware."
This is the first arrest in Japan for the creation of this kind of malware.
The junior high school student is suspected of having produced the virus in January. It encrypts and renders data on infected computers inaccessible until a ransom is paid.
Police officers in Kanagawa Prefecture, near Tokyo, say they found a message posted by the boy on an online website. In the message, the boy stated that he had created the malware. The officers raided his home in April and discovered traces of the virus inside a personal computer.
The investigators say there have been no reports of damage caused by the virus, which was downloaded many times from a website.
