February 27, 2010

Latvian Hacker "Neo" Exposes Banksters' Finances



The Register:

Latvian hacker tweets hard on banking whistle
Fat cat pay leaked all over the Baltics

By John Leyden

A hacker has become a popular hero in the Baltics, and scourge to the authorities, by leaking information on the finances of banks and state-run firms to Latvian TV.

The whistle-blowing cracker, who calls himself Neo in an apparent Matrix tribute, is feeding embarrassing information such as the pay of managers who work for a Latvian bank that received a credit crunch bail-out to the media via Twitter.

The information reveals that bankers failed to take promised salary cuts after their banks were forced to take a state hand-out to stay afloat. Other juicy titbits involve undisclosed bonuses to senior staff at supposedly near-destitute state-owned firms.

Senior government officials are reportedly earning 2,000 lats ($4,000) a month or more while the salary of teachers has been slashed by one-third to $600 a month as part of an unpopular austerity package, AP reports.


Continued . . .