"E-Godfathers" caught by Police

A group of hackers have been following the "Godfather" standards, led by a big-business senior manager, breaking into the records of large companies and then extorting money not to destroy them. In simple words, they were "selling internet protection" for hundreds of thousands of euros.

This unprecedented case for Greek standards, began to unfold about three months ago. The leader of the company of electronic muscle men was a 29-year-old male, born into a wealthy family of Kifissia and employed in a large computer company. The young man recruited hackers and together they launched the e-protection racket. Their methods were simple. They broke into car and telecom company records, where there would be an abundance of clients' personal data and then they would ask the owners of those companies to pay large sums of money to have their data protected and not destroyed.

The story was revealed when the Electronic Crime Unit was called by a company that had been the victim of blackmail. Electronic traces of the invaders were immediately found, which led to the house of the leader of the e-protection racket in Kifissia, where USB sticks and hard drives filled with data were confiscated. The 29-year-old was arrested and taken to the Prosecutor. The ECU estimates that the size of the blackmail is considerable. Officers attest to the fact that the young man and his team seem to  have been involved in other major cases of violations and data snatching, without them being reported.