Man arrested in Athens
over ID theft of most of Greek population
Reuters – Tue, Nov 20,
2012
ATHENS (Reuters) - Greek
police have arrested a man on suspicion of stealing the personal data of
roughly two thirds of the country's population, police officials in Athens said
on Tuesday.
The 35-year old computer
programmer was also suspected of attempting to sell the 9 million files
containing identification card data, addresses, tax ID numbers and license
plate numbers. Some files contained duplicate entries, police said.
Greece's population is 11
million.
"We are investigating
what the source of the data was and how they were used by the man arrested, and
also the possibility of him providing them to someone else," police
spokesman Christos Manouras told reporters.
Police were also looking
into whether the man had obtained the data files by hacking into a government
server and whether he had an accomplice, officials said. The files were
discovered after police raided his home.
No charges have been
pressed yet and the man is expected to appear before a prosecutor later on
Tuesday.
(Reporting by Renee Maltezou;
Editing by Louise Ireland)
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