Tech

Those clever people at Anonymous claim to have compromised the security of the Greek Finance Ministry and have issued the following statement, the essence of which is reproduced below.

Greetings citizens of the world

Greetings citizens of Greece

We are anonymous.

The Greek government is prepared to testify to a vote in the Greek Parliament the new package of economic austerity measures of 13.5 billion euros which are expected to prolong the recession in Greece.

Under the austerity measures, pensioners have seen a 60 percent fall in their pensions – meaning their life savings are now less than half what they expected. Meanwhile, the government is considering more cuts, raising the retirement age and putting a cap on free healthcare provision of just €1,500 per person per year.

Greece used to have one of the lowest suicide rates in the EU but since 2010, the number of people taking their own lives has increased by 40 percent, with a large proportion from the older generation.

Sixty-eight percent of Greece’s population living below the at-risk-of poverty rate (ie, having an income below 60 percent of the national median) were spending over 40 percent of their income on rent or mortgage payments.

More than 439,000 underage children are living below poverty level in Greece due to the ongoing crisis, according to a UNICEF report released on Oct. 16 on the occasion of the World Feed Day 2012 and the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty.

The popularity of far right parties, including the neo-Nazi Golden Dawn, has risen in tandem.

Your goverment failed you.

Greek citizens, it’s time to revolt. Do it while you can.

Stick it to the Man.

You must resist. We stand by your side.

We gained full access to the Greek Ministry of Finance. Those funky IBM servers don’t look so safe now, do they… We have new guns in our arsenal. A sweet 0day SAP exploit is in our hands and oh boy we’re gonna sploit the hell out of it. Respectz to izl the dog for that perl candy.

The message concludes:

Citizens of Greece you are paying Banks and international hedge funds. They own your lives. Revolt before it’s too late. The austerity measures should not pass. We need to say no more.

Having spent my last few holidays on Crete (most enjoyable), I’ve been impressed by the stoicism with which ordinary Greeks have endured the last few years of austerity; they’ve been severely let down for years by their corrupt political class. Greek members of parliament have immunity from prosecution while in office. To save time at a later date, perhaps the parliament building at the end of Syntagma Square should be converted to a prison. 😉

The security breach also took place on the day after journalist Kostas Vaxevanis was arrested for leaking the “Lagarde List”, a document containing the names of 2,000 wealthy Greeks with Swiss bank accounts, who could possibly be evading tax and about whom the Greek authorities have done nothing for 2 years. Coincidence?