Swede Hacks Embassy Account Information From Around the World

paulraps writes "A Swedish IT consultant has caused a stir in diplomatic circles after publishing a list of secret log-in details belonging to 100 embassies, public authorities and political parties around the world. Dan Egerstad said he wasn't trying to earn money, gain publicity or get a name for himself in hacking circles. Instead he claimed that publishing the list was easier than contacting the organizations individually — and that if he had handed it to the Swedish authorities then that would have been spying."

Comments

When best intentions go wrong

[Paperghost]

"Dan Egerstad said he wasn't trying to earn money, gain publicity or get a name for himself in hacking circles." ....whoops.

Re:Good intentions?

[Otter]

Sure, calling 100 different embassies can be kind of a hassle, but he could just send out an email with a bunch of BCCs.

Yeah, you'd think that a guy who is so 1337 that he "accidentally" ran a cracker against 6 different embassies (it's 100 people, not embassies, despite what the submitter and Zonk wrote) wouldn't have trouble cc'ing them. My coworkers don't seem to have any trouble cc'ing a lot more people than that.

According to the Swedish Hacker

[Rob T Firefly]

Their security is borked.

Re:Not after fame, eh?

[morgan_greywolf]

Because then no one would search for his LinkedIn account, thus upping his number of connections from a mere 8.

Re:Cue Borat Joke Here

[king-manic]

Of the compromised account, ten belong to the Kazakh embassy in Russia. Around 40 belong to Uzbeki embassies and consulates around the world. So half of the 100 accounts belong to underdeveloped former Soviet republics. It seems unsurprising that many of their staff would be unfamiliar with computer systems and computer security.

Kazakhstan is the greatest country in the world, all other countries are run by little girls. Kazakhstan is number one exporter of internet security, Other Central Asian countries have inferior internet security.

High Five!