Hackers steal 2 million tonnes of EU carbon credits

Yahoo ^ | 1/20/11 | AFP

[NormsRevenge]

BRUSSELS (AFP) – Hackers stole two million tonnes of polluting rights in a five-day raid this week on the European Union's carbon emissions trading system, an EU source said on Thursday.

The volume of carbon credits stolen in online action, which a European Commission spokeswoman was "possibly concerted", represents just a fraction of global industrial greenhouse gas permits, but is potentially worth many millions of euros.

The scale of the theft, which involved five unnamed EU states, was revealed a day after Brussels shut all 27 national trading registries for a week, citing inadequate online protection.

Credits stolen just from the Czech Republic were worth seven million euros.

Fourteen of the 27 European Union states need to boost their online security to minimum standards, the spokeswoman said.

The EU Emission Trading Scheme (ETS) is the largest multinational, greenhouse gas emissions trading scheme in the world, but has repeatedly suffered security breaches.

[hinckley buzzard]

Phoney baloney crap all the way around. Stealing phoney "credits" from phoney agencies running phoney bureaucratic scams.

[molson50]

Isn’t this like pawning your air guitar?

[SunkenCiv]

thanks Ernest_at_the_Beach for this one:

• European carbon market suspended over fraud fears

thanks NormsRevenge for the current one.

[steelyourfaith]

Thanx again SunkenCiv !

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !