Hackers Steal Millions in Carbon Credits

February 11, 2010 by Dan Gibson · Leave a comment
Filed under: energy

There’s a lot of debate about cap and trade here in the States. The debate makes for interesting reading. There are a number of different scenarios and ideas surrounding the whole cap and trade concept. One concept I hadn’t considered, and maybe I should, is theft. Not sure what I mean?

Give this article at Wired a quick read. Basically a group of hackers launched a phishing campaign against employees of some companies in Europe, New Zealand and Japan. Phishing is when a hacker sends an email to someone directing them to a fake Web site trying to get the person to enter in sensitive information like their password. The site captures the information and the hacker can use it later to access the account.

In this case, the emails appeared to come from the German Emissions Trading Authority that records carbon credits and transactions. The employees were told that their companies needed to re-register their accounts with the Authority and were directed to a fake Web site to enter the information.

According to an estimate from the BBC, the hackers stole 250,000 carbon credit permits from six companies worth more than $4 million. At least seven out of 2,000 German firms that were targeted in the phishing attack fell for it, including one firm that lost $2.1 million in credits in the fraud.

The buyers of the credits have not been named and the German Emissions Trading Authority has suspended access to its databases while an investigation is underway.

Has anyone else heard any stories like these?

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