Hackers Steal $ 49m In The EU Emissions
Commission stop the trade in the wake of the attacks on members e-Registers BRUSSELS:EU supervisory authorities report an unusual theft to greenhouse gas emissions permits stolen in online attacks in recent days.
Commission, the EU's executive arm, first put most of the blame on hackers and bad security."The theft could have been a coordinated action because recent events took place during the last few days," said Maria Kokkonen, spokesman for EU climate policy Commissioner Connie Hedegaard, on Thursday. Another EU official, who asked not to be named, said some companies that regularly use the system had acknowledged that their employees could be involved in the thefts.
The thefts took place on electronic registries in Austria, Greece, Czech Republic, Poland and Estonia. The committee said spot trading in all EU registries would be suspended until at least next Wednesday. It said the next step is to shore up the system, the world's largest platform for trading emission rights is to meet with representatives of the 27 member states to ensure all countries implement security upgrades.
The stolen permits are part of a system to cap carbon dioxide that companies can emit each year. Companies that exceed their quotas can buy certificates from companies that do not. Officials said it's too easy to get access to the system in about half of all European countries. In some cases, they do operators do not have to go through a "two-step" identification procedure akin to what many consumers use tc access their bank accounts online.
A similar attack a year ago in Germany prompted EU officials to issue additional guidelines for safety. But officials said there had been no sign of a recurrence of such serious problems until the recent attacks. "Security is the responsibility of the national Member States for their own records," Ms. Kokkonen, adding that the national system would largely be eliminated by 2013 when a single register is introduced.
Blue Next, one of the largest gas markets in Europe, said Thursday that authorities asked in countries like the Czech Republic and Austria for a list of the serial numbers of stolen permits sc that it can remove them from the market.
