An army sergeant major who claimed to have obtained the personal digitalised data of 55 million Thais surrendered to police on Wednesday and confessed he just wanted to be in the spotlight.
He said he did not hack the data himself, he bought it from actual hackers, and it was 8 million data records, not 55 million.
SM2 Khemarat Boonchuai, 33, gave himself up at the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) in Nonthaburi province on Wednesday. He had been been absent without leave from the Army Transportation Department, where he works as a driver, since April 3.
Authorities had been under pressure to arrest the soldier who claimed to have the personal data of 55 million Thai people.
Officials earlier assumed that the man, who called himself "9near", accessed the data collected by the Mor Prom health service portal of the Public Health Ministry through his girlfriend, who is a nurse.
At the CCIB, Minister of Digital Economy and Society Chaiwut Thanakamanosorn quoted SM2 Khemarat as saying that in fact he bought the data from groups of actual hackers, and that he had already wiped it.
"It is not known when the data was collected. I do not think the matter was politically motivated or that there was any mastermind," the minister said.
CCIB commissioner Pol Lt Gen Worawat Watnakhonbancha said SM2 Khemarat spent 8,000 baht getting 8 million data records, and posted online about possessing the data because he wanted his moment of fame.
Initially the suspect posted the claim online himself, but failed to draw the attention he craved. So he asked an online influencer he knew to post about it, and succeeded in getting widespread attention, the commissioner said.
"He said he did not have the data of 55 million people, as earlier reported," Pol Lt Gen Worawat said.
The commissioner said that SM2 Khemarat was a graduate in information technology. His girlfriend was a nurse whose duty was to take care of patients. She had nothing to do with any computer system.
Prior to his surrender, the suspect had hidden at several places, Pol Lt Gen Worawat said.
SM2 Khemarat was charged with putting false information into a computer system in a way that could undermine national security, and forwarding false information, under the Computer Crimes Act.
