Latvia grapples with theft of tax data

RIGA, Latvia – Latvian officials are struggling to come to grips with an enigmatic group that stole millions of classified tax documents from government computers in a purported effort to expose waste and graft in Europe’s weakest economy.

An organisation calling itself the People’s Army of the Fourth Awakening says it downloaded the documents after finding a hole in the tax authority’s web site.A person with the signature ‘Neo’ has posted some of the information – including income and wealth of public officials – on the Internet. The incident has embarrassed politicians and public officials, who often make many times the average salary, at a time when Latvia is undergoing painful budget cutbacks to rebound from a severe recession. – Nampa-AP