By John Leyden for The
Register.
This story has been reproduced with permission.
Vodafone was ruled at fault for not preventing unknown hackers
from subverting a legitimate surveillance system, supplied by
Swedish firm Ericsson, to spy on Greek officials around the time of
the 2004 Athens Olympics. The mobile operator said that the
investigation was incomplete because officials were yet to question
Ericsson. It plans to appeal the ruling.
"Vodafone announced that it fully rejects the rationale of the
authority and considers the penalty illegal, unfair and totally
groundless," Vodafone Greece said in a statement, AP
reports. "Vodafone will seek recourse with the judiciary
against the decision and is certain it will be overturned."
Investigators failed to determine who was behind phone taps
targeting more than 100 Vodafone users including government
ministers, military officials and journalists between around June
2004 until March 2005, when Vodafone dismantled the systems after
the security breach was uncovered. Calls from and to targeted
phones were relayed to 16 mobile phones using pre-paid cards,
located in central Athens, thanks to unauthorised manipulation of
the Ericsson-supplied surveillance software used by Vodafone
Greece.
The Hellenic Authority for the Information and Communication
Security and Privacy criticised Vodafone for obstructing its
investigation by failing to own up about the surveillance system
itself.
Greece's parliament has also launched a separate investigation
into the wiretapping scandal. During a hearing earlier this year,
the heads of the Greek arms of Vodafone and Ericsson pointed the
finger of blame for the scandal at each other, AP adds. The
parliamentary probe also looked into the death of a senior Greek
Vodafone official, George Tsalikidis, who was found hanged in
March, just before Vodafone briefed government officials about the
role of the surveillance system in the scandal. A judicial
investigation failed to uncover any link between the suspected
suicide and the scandal, the FT
adds.
© The Register
2006
