We are publishing an open letter from university/technical institute professors, as we should, regarding hacking and the case that recently occupied the media.
TO:
– “Real News” Newspaper
– “Macedonia” Newspaper
– “To Vima” Newspaper
– Hot Doc/koutipandoras
– mycampus.gr
– secnews.gr
In recent days, we have witnessed an extensive campaign by a section of the media to exonerate hacking. The reason for this unexpected development was the hiring of two individuals accused of cybercrime by the Cybercrime Prosecution Service of the Greek Police. The coverage extended to the “heroization” of two would-be hackers, who allegedly illegally hacked into third-party computers, with the aim of creating bitcoin-type electronic money. In this case, the media used formulations and descriptions such as: “he made a game”, “geniuses”, “we were definitely talking about intelligence”, “achievement”, “secret of success”, “talent”, “very great interest from large companies”, “they achieved the impossible”, “his dream of working at the EYP”, “the ban on leaving the country in order to work abroad will be lifted”, etc.
As members of the academic community, we consider it our duty to inform citizens about the risks involved in adopting such an attitude towards acts of violation of information and communications security; such an act constitutes hacking.
Since the 1990s, Greek legislation has criminalized illegal interference in information and communication systems, while already in 2001, with the Budapest Convention on Cybercrime, the countries of the Council of Europe adopted a clear position regarding hacking as a clearly illegal act that should be dealt with by criminal sanctions. Finally, we point out that Directive 2013/40/EU on attacks against information systems, adopted by the member states of the European Union, calls for the punishment of such acts with effective and dissuasive sanctions. The laws of the rest of the advanced countries of the world also reserve a similar treatment for hacking.
It goes without saying that the judiciary is the only authority to decide whether or not a crime was actually committed in these cases. However, as in the case of other quasi-crimes (robberies, thefts, fraud), regardless of the final outcome of these cases at a legal level, it is certainly unacceptable to glorify acts of this type and the abilities of those who allegedly committed them, thus giving the average citizen a distorted picture of the seriousness of the problem and false hopes for young people for a future professional outlet.
Cybersecurity is a major concern of the European Union. In the relevant policy and strategy texts, as well as in the legislative initiatives of the European Commission, the goal of drastically reducing cybercrime plays a dominant role. Among the actions proposed to achieve this, as well as other goals, is the enhancement of citizens' awareness of information security and protection issues and the training of scientists and technicians capable of designing, developing, operating and maintaining systems that successfully deal with cyber threats.
[box_alert]In this direction, many Departments of Universities and TEIs in the country have included the security of information and communication systems in their curricula, both at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. In this context, training is also provided using hacking techniques, which are absolutely necessary for the proper preparation of future security executives. However, this training always takes place in a technically controlled environment, while at the same time great emphasis is placed on the proper education of trainees for the legal and ethical use of these techniques. At the same time, it is appropriate to mention here the inter-university, national and European cybersecurity actions and exercises that take place on a periodic basis with the participation of many entities in the Public and Private sectors.[/box_alert]
[quote]In closing, we confirm our, self-evident, total opposition to acts of violation of information and communications security, wherever they come from and regardless of the purpose for which they were committed, as we, as citizens, must do, for any illegal act. We assure our students, especially all those who currently work as information and communications systems security executives in Greece and abroad, that they have rightly chosen the difficult path of education for their professional advancement and we appeal to young people not to be carried away by the sirens of the "easy solution". Most likely, they will not lead them to a safe professional harbor, but rather to entanglements with the Justice System, to which we are always at your disposal, to assist, if and when necessary, in its work, as cases related to electronic crime seem, unfortunately, to be of more and more concern to it.[/quote]
July 19, 2014
Iakovos Venieris, NTUA
Vasilis Vlachos, TEI of Larissa
Stefanos Gritzalis, University of the Aegean
Christos Kalloniatis, University of the Aegean
George Kampourakis, University of the Aegean
Maria Karyda, University of the Aegean
Vasilis Katos, Democritus University of Thrace
Socrates Katsikas, University of Piraeus
Angelos Kiagias, University of Athens
Spyros Kokolakis, University of the Aegean
Panagiotis Kotzanikolaou, University of Piraeus
Costas Lambrinoudakis, University of Piraeus
Manos Mangos, Ionian University
Yannis Marias, Athens University of Economics and Business
Lilian Mitrou, University of the Aegean
Christos Xenakis, University of Piraeus
Kostas Rantos, Technical University of Kavala
Diomedes Spinellis, Athens University of Economics and Business
Vasilis Chrysikopoulos, Ionian University
SecNews Note: The announcement regarding the hacking bears the signature of the most distinguished Greek computer science professors, with research focus on data security and numerous publications and books in Greece and abroad. It is also worth noting that the 2 hackers mentioned in the letter are, according to journalistic information, an investigated case that took place in an earlier period of time and is not related to the case of the two alleged hackers who recently made the news. The timing of the announcement may have implied that it concerned the same persons.
Finally, SecNews maintains a particularly cautious and discreet waiting attitude, since it considers it important to await any decision of the Greek judiciary regarding the alleged acts that have not yet been clarified. The details of the case file are partially known from what has been made public and therefore it is difficult to reach safe conclusions regarding the alleged acts of the alleged hackers and the damage they caused, provided of course that this is sufficiently substantiated by the accompanying evidence in the case file.
What is certain is that it is our firm position that each case has its own particularities and should be treated as such, without reaching premature conclusions regarding the development and final outcome of each case.
SecNews thanks the team of University/Technical Institute Professors for the timely and accurate information.
