funsec mailing list archives

RE: FW: Suicide mystery in Greek spy scandal


From: "Stelios Maistros" <smaistros () aegean gr>
Date: Tue, 7 Feb 2006 23:11:40 +0200

Yes, they are going crazy with this day and night over here. Everyone is
suddenly an expert going from one TV show to the next.
Vodafone has all but disapeared from the airwaves issuing only
statements to the press. No commercials anywhere.
The crazy thing is that once they found the "ghost software" (actually
Ericscon found it)  they shut it down before reporting it.
At least that's what they say..who know for real..

Stelios


-----Original Message-----
From: funsec-bounces () linuxbox org 
[mailto:funsec-bounces () linuxbox org] On Behalf Of Richard M. Smith
Sent: Tuesday, February 07, 2006 5:29 AM
To: 'FunSec [List]'
Subject: [funsec] FW: Suicide mystery in Greek spy scandal


http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-2025457,00.html

Suicide mystery in Greek spy scandal
Philip Pangalos, in Athens
 
THE suicide of a senior Vodafone employee in Athens last 
March is being re-examined to see whether it has any 
connection with a phone-tapping scandal in which the 
conversations of the Greek prime minister and other leading 
officials were monitored during the months before and after 
the 2004 Olympics. 

Illegal software installed in a "ghost program" at Vodafone 
Greece allowed conversations to be recorded on about 100 
mainly government mobiles until March 2005, when the 
surveillance was uncovered. 
 
The conversations of Kostas Karamanlis, the prime minister, 
and his wife Natasa were taped. Other government figures 
targeted for eavesdropping included Petros Molyviatis, the 
foreign minister, Spilios Spiliotopoulos, the defence 
minister, and George Voulgarakis, the public order minister 
The affair has provoked fevered speculation with American 
security agents being widely blamed for the tapping. The 
Greek government has said four antennae near the US embassy 
in Athens were used to transmit the conversations recorded. 

To Vima, an Athens daily, also claimed yesterday that MI6 had 
secret surveillance operations in the area, but security 
experts said the Americans have more advanced and discreet equipment. 

As part of the government's investigation into the scandal, 
the suicide of Kostas Tsalikidis, 39, Vodafone Greece's head 
of network design, is being re-examined by police. 

Tsalikidis was found hanged in his Athens flat on the morning 
of March 9, 2005, two days after the ghost program had been 
discovered and shut down by George Koronias, the Vodafone 
general manager, and a day before the prime minister's office 
was informed. 

At the time detectives found no suicide note. They are now 
examining the dead man's laptop, which has been in police 
storage for the past year. 

Vodafone issued a statement on Friday saying the death of its 
former employee was unconnected with the phone tapping. 
However, Tsalikidis's family and friends have said that he 
spoke of work-related pressures prior to his death.
 
  
 
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