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False comments are attributed to political candidates after someone steals their Web site password
Incident Date: October 21 2004 Incident Location: Finland False and disparaging comments attributed to two Finnish National Coalition Party political candidates were posted on a Web site October 21 2004, just three days before elections in Finland. The Web site was maintained by Finnish Broadcasting Company YLE and provided a forum for candidates to submit answers to questions that were important to voters. The comments attributed to the candidates were none too flattering, with distinctively racist and sexist content. A project manager at YLE reported that a criminal somehow obtained Web site passwords associated with the Finnish National Coalition Party. The passwords allowed them to gain unauthorized access to the Web site and forge answers for the two candidates, who hadn’t completed answering the questionnaire. The YLE site webmaster apparently wasn’t notified of the problem until the eve of the election, at which point they removed the false statements. The two candidates failed to win their respective elections, but there is no evidence that the false comments directly affected the outcome. The comments were traced back to a computer in a public library. Police are investigating the crime, but do not have specific suspects at the time of this report. Story Sources Title: Election candidates' web pages hacked during Finnish election Author: Erka Koivunen Date: 10/28/2004 Publication: RISKS Digest 23.58 Account of a story published in Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on October 27, 2004 Publication Location: Finland Publication URL: http://www.helsinginsanomat.fi/tuoreet/artikkeli/1076154360595 Do you have additional information to contribute regarding this story? If so, please email siteupdates@passwordresearch.com with the details and source.
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