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Bid to steal data on greenhouse gas

February 05, 2010

Hackers have set up a fake website in a bid to profit from an EU programme that gives factories and power stations a chance to make money by selling unused quotas of greenhouse gases that they are allowed to release.

The hackers designed the sight look like a European Commission page and asked EU government users to log on to it. They stole seven usernames and passwords to access information on the German database on permits used in the EU's carbon trading programme.

Germany warned users to ignore emails with a link to the trading database and to re-enter their password.

The EU executive said it would upgrade security and that EU governments were investigating whether they had also been attacked.

It claimed that hackers had not been able to access a key EU database with data on actual greenhouse gas emissions that the trading system relies on.

German authorities said hackers stole pollution permits worth 3 million euros (£1.8m) on January 28 when they set up the fake site.

Copyright © Press Association 2010

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