Getting to know “Neo” the Latvian hacker
Exclusive interview of "Baltic Reports" with "Neo" Latvian hacker.
RIGA — Hero, criminal, hacker, activist, revolutionary. These are the words being used in Latvia to describe Ilmārs Poikāns.
Poikāns, 31 of Riga, was arrested in May for illegally accessing and enabling the publication of tax records of Latvia’s political and business elite using the moniker “Neo.” He confessed his actions to police forthright and was subsequently released until his pre-trial hearing.
An official from the State Revenue Service told parliament that 120 people illegally downloaded documents from the service’s electronic declaration system and that the “hole” existed from the end of 2007 until Feb. 4, 2010, when it was first discovered and promptly closed.
An estimated 7.4 million documents, equaling 120 gigabytes of data, were downloaded from the site, including income statements and tax declarations of public officials, bureaucrats, and businesses.
Data shows that top executives of the municipal companies received huge monthly salaries — 4,000 lats (€5,700) and higher — while enormous bonuses, including 16,000 lats (€22,500) to Riga Heat CEO Āris Žīgurs last March, went out the door all while regular employees took wage reductions in light of budget cuts. Read more...
Zombies up 71%
It’s been almost one month since the huge increase of email-borne malware attachments were reported. The outbreaks have continued on an almost daily basis since then and we have noted a corresponding dramatic increase of over 70% in the number of zombies.
Latvian hack’s hack story leads to hack-hacking
'Don't try jumping higher than your own...'
An enraged Latvian hacker went batshit over an article criticising security at small, low-cost hosting companies and defaced the website of the news agency LETA.
The hacker used sophisticated techniques to fight off efforts to restore service to hundreds of the news agency's customers.
LETA, which is privately owned, calls itself the national news agency of the small Baltic republic and has been operating for more than 90 years, including some 50 years under Soviet rule or occupation, as Latvians call it. Its only competitor is Baltic News Service (BNS), a regional news agency with branches in all three Baltic countries. Read more...