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Tax agency targeted in 'serious' hacker attack

Published: 29 Mar 12 08:13 CET | Print version
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/39964/20120329/

Personal details of thousands of Swedes, including those with protected identities, may have been accessed in a hacker attack targeting an IT-firm supplying services to the Swedish Tax Agency (Skatteverket).

“This is a terrible failure for the tax agency. People with protected identities are generally crime victims, abused and persecuted women, witnesses under threat, judges, police officers and journalists. Their lives could depend on not being detected,” said a source close to the investigation to daily Expressen.

According to the paper, county police and tax agency IT specialists are busy investigating just how many personal details might have leaked out during the suspected attack, which was detected last week.

The breach occurred at the IT-company Logica, which supplies several government agencies with information from the tax authority's public register.

“This is a serious incident. We have never experienced something like this before,” said Anders Sandell, head of security at the company, to Expressen.

The tax agency has confirmed to Expressen that a number of personal identity numbers have been accessed in the breach, of which about a thousand were of people with protected identities.

However, the experts are still unsure whether any other information, such as address or other contact details, had been accessed at the same time.

“We are just saying that there is a theoretical possibility that other details have been copied,” said Anders Kylesten, head of security at the tax agency, to Expressen.

However, Kylesten still sees the breach as a “serious” one.

“We are doing everything we can to handle any potential consequences of this, but it is important not to frighten people who are already living in fear, if there is no reason,” he told the paper.

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09:16 March 29, 2012 by saar
Logica sucks.
09:25 March 29, 2012 by Borilla
You Assange fans can rejoice. You may have caused a few more women to be injured and enabled a few more "honor" killings.Have a nice day.
10:20 March 29, 2012 by J Jack
@ Borilla, grow up or sober up, this has nothing to do with that which you speak. Your sarcasm is also very weak.
10:42 March 29, 2012 by karex
One extremely important issue they must also get to the bottom of is who was behind this attack: hackers trying to show off their skills? Criminals? or a foreign government? How potentially damaging this breach could be, and how wide-spread will depend on the motivation behind it.
12:06 March 29, 2012 by notpresto
Made i will get a better tax return due to computer error in my favour.
13:39 March 29, 2012 by Rishonim
Now not attacking kronofogden and all those scare tactics collection agencies??
19:31 March 29, 2012 by Trenatos
Isn't this something that SÄPO or MUST is supposed to be mitigating? Performing threat analysis and security hardening for organizations and companies working with sensitive information?..

The fact that this happened should be a wake-up call.
10:03 March 30, 2012 by philster61
hahaha. Serves them right....They are just a legal mafia anyway
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