Man and teenage boy arrested over cyber-attack on London nurseries

A man and a boy have been arrested in connection with an alleged cyber-attack on a set of nurseries in Greater London.

The man, 22, and boy, 17, were arrested on suspicion of computer misuse and blackmail at residential properties in Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire on Tuesday and remain in custody for questioning.

In September, the names, pictures and addresses of about 8,000 children were stolen from the Kido nursery chain. The profiles of 10 children were posted online and the hackers threatened to publish more material unless they were paid.

Announcing the arrests, Will Lyne, the Met’s head of economic and cybercrime, said: “Since these attacks took place, specialist Met investigators have been working at pace to identify those responsible.

“We understand reports of this nature can cause considerable concern, especially to those parents and carers who may be worried about the impact of such an incident on them and their families.

“We want to reassure the community and anyone affected that this matter continues to be taken extremely seriously. These arrests are a significant step forward in our investigation, but our work continues, alongside our partners, to ensure those responsible are brought to justice.”

The Met’s inquiries continue.

Kido, which has 18 sites around London, told parents the breach happened when criminals accessed their data hosted by a software service called Famly, which is widely used by nurseries to share photos and information with parents.

Anders Laustsen, the chief executive of Famly, said: “We have conducted a thorough investigation of the incident and can confirm that there has been no breach of Famly’s security or infrastructure in any way and no other customers have been affected. We of course take data security and privacy extremely seriously at Famly.”