This article is more than 1 year old

The Man Who Stole Greece: Cuffed chap had data on most of country

Seemed to be doing better than the tax authorities

Greek police have cuffed a suspect who allegedly stole personal data of three-quarters of the country's population as part of an attempted industrial-scale ID theft scam.

The unnamed 35-year-old computer programmer is suspected of attempting to flog nine million records containing ID card data, addresses, tax identification numbers and car license plate numbers, Reuters reports. Some records were duplicates but even so personal data of the majority the the economically troubled European country's 11 million inhabitants appears to have been exposed by the breach.

AP adds that the suspect was caught in possession of the treasure trove of data after been traced through the internet.

The source of the leaked data remains unclear, although an insecure government server is one likely possibility. The investigation into the mystery privacy breach remains ongoing and further arrests may follow.

"We are investigating what the source of the data was and how they were used by the man arrested, and also the possibility of him providing them to someone else," police spokesman Christos Manouras told reporters. ®

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