Hackers introduce 'taxes on stupidity' on Romanian government Web site
BUCHAREST, Romania, Nov 03, 1999 (AP Worldstream via COMTEX) -- Hackers
broke into the Finance Ministry's Web site, introducing bogus ''taxes
on stupidity'' and changing the exchange rate of Romania's national
currency.
The government was working to upgrade security, but the Web site
remains down while efforts to fix the damage are under way, Adriana
Saftoiu, a government spokeswoman, said Wednesday.
''In future we will try to have better security systems,'' she said.
The hackers entered the site last week, changing it to say the ministry
had introduced taxes on stupidity levied in direct proportion with the
importance of the position held. Money gathered from the new taxes
would be used to bribe NATO officials to take Romania into the military
alliance, the hacked site said.
They also altered the exchange rate for the national currency to make
the lei worth twice as much as the dollar, a far cry from the central
bank's official rate of 17,033 lei to dlrs 1.
In a note left for the site's system administrator, the hackers said:
''Your page was quite cool, but we had to make a name for ourselves,
too.'' They also left an e-mail address where they could be contacted
for advice on how to fix the site.
So far, however, that address has not revealed their identity.
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(PROFILE
(WS SL:BC-Romania-Hackers; CT:i;
(REG:MEST;)
(REG:ENGL;)
(REG:AFRI;)
(REG:ASIA;)
(LANG:ENGLISH;))
)
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