Latvian officials struggled Wednesday to come to grips with an enigmatic group that stole millions of classified tax documents from government computers in a purported effort to expose waste and graft in Europe’s weakest economy.
The massive data theft from the tax authority’s computer system has raised concerns about cybersecurity in the Baltic country.
It has also embarrassed politicians and other public officials whose income and wealth — often many times the national average — are being exposed to the public at a time when Latvia is undergoing painful budget cutbacks to rebound from a severe recession.
News of the electronic security breach surfaced last week, when an organization calling itself the People’s Army of the Fourth Awakening told Latvian TV it had downloaded millions of classified documents over several months from the revenue service’s Web site.
One of the group’s members, who uses the name “Neo” — apparently in reference to the hero of the popular “Matrix” films — has been making some of the documents available on the Internet.
On Wednesday “Neo” published salaries of members of Latvia’s police force and, in comments on a Twitter account, said “I call on the police union to analyze the data and determine whether the salary reform is fair and to continue the fight against crime.”
Earlier this week “Neo” released data showing that the CEO of Riga’s heating company, Aris Zigurs, paid himself a 16,000 lat ($32,000) bonus last year — a hefty sum for a city-owned utility, especially at a time when many municipal workers have had their salaries slashed. Zigurs confirmed to Latvian media the data was accurate.
It is unclear where “Neo” and the other organization members — if they exist — are located, though “Neo” has indicated that he or she is currently abroad. Even “Neo’s” gender remains a mystery, though local…