An underage boy suspected of stealing data on A1 telecom's clients had an accomplice from abroad, the head of the General Police Directorate's cyber security service, Renato Grguric, said on Tuesday.

Since the suspect is a minor, Grguric would not say more about him.

“Regardless of the fact that it’s an underage person, I can confirm that there is enough evidence indicating that he is the perpetrator of that crime,” he told the press, adding that another person is suspected who has not been identified and is outside Croatia.

Asked what punishment the suspected minor could expect, Grguric said that in such cases the emphasis was not on punishment but prevention.

He said that adults found guilty of such crimes faced between three and five years in prison.

As for the possible responsibility of the parents, Grguric said that under the law persons older than 14 were held accountable.

As for possible damage to A1 clients, he said there probably would not be any and that so far the police had not received even one complaint.

Grguric dismissed with almost total certainty any connection between this case and a hacker attack at Osijek University this week.

Asked if in the case of A1 it was a question of the hacker’s brilliance or an insufficiently protected system, he said, “No system is secure enough and every attack is an opportunity for companies to enhance security.”

According to the media, A1 was hacked last week by a teenage pupil who demanded the telecom pay 150 Etherum worth about half a million dollars or he would make a personal information database public on the dark web.