site.btaThree Charged with Revenue Agency Hack

104 POLITICS - HOME AFFAIRS - REVENUE AGENCY HACK-ampl.1

Three Charged with Revenue
Agency
Hack


July 25 (BTA) - The Specialized Prosecution Office Thursday charged three men with hacking the National Revenue Agency (NRA) in mid-July, which compromised data of about 4 million Bulgarians.

Kristian Boikov was charged with a crime against the Republic aimed to cause confusion and fear in the public through a computer offence. He faces between five and 15 years in prison on conviction.

The owner and the commercial director of the company where Boikov works were charged with inciting a computer offence. Boikov and the commercial director Georgi Yankov were released on 20,000 leva bail each. A European Arrest Warrant will be issued for the company's owner.

More people may be charged as further evidence is being collected.

The prosecutors claim that when Boikov's computer was decrypted, it was found to contain files with data of clients of private companies.

Parliament Thursday voted unanimously to set up a 15-member ad hoc committee which has three months to look into the facts of the data breach which poses a threat to national security. The ruling GERB party proposed this step on Wednesday on the grounds that the breach of personal, tax and social security data of millions of Bulgarians is a very sensitive subject.

The Socialist Party's press office quoted leader Kornelia Ninova as saying the hacking of NRA's system was a huge problem. Over 2 billion leva were spent on e-government and yet the systems of the Customs Agency, the Commercial Register, the Central Election Commission, the National Assembly and the Justice Ministry have been breached or made unavailable in several instances, said Ninova. LI/DD

//