Police Arrest Alleged Economic Forum Hacker

ByABC News
February 23, 2001, 4:45 PM

G E N E V A, Feb. 23 -- Swiss police arrested a man today on suspicion ofhacking into the computer systems of the World Economic Forum andstealing private information about participants.

Geneva police said the man was a 20-year-old Swiss citizen andpart-time computer consultant. He was arrested in the Swisscapital, Bern.

Police said he would be charged with data theft, unauthorizedentry into a computer system, damage to property and misuse ofcredit cards. If found guilty he faces up to five years in prison,or a fine.

No further details would be released, police said. They did notrelease the name of the suspect.

It was not clear whether the man had been working alone orwhether he had been part of a team. A shadowy group ofanti-globalization hackers calling themselves VirtualMonkeywrench had claimed responsibility for the attack.

The hackers obtained personal information about government andbusiness leaders who have attended the summit in the Swiss skiresort of Davos in recent years.

They passed a CD-ROM containing stolen data from the forumssystems to the weekly SonntagsZeitung, which published details onFeb. 4. The newspaper reported that it included the numbers ofcredit cards, passports and personal cellular phones belonging topolitical and business leaders including former President Clinton,Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, andSouth African President Thabo Mbeki.

The newspaper said the hackers obtained information about 27,000leading politicians, chief executives of major corporations, andtop managers who have taken part in the forum.

The World Economic Forum, the Geneva-based foundation thatorganizes the Davos summits, made a complaint to the justiceauthorities in early February.