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Henk Kamp (Photo: Rijksoverheid.nl/Wikimedia Commons)
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Henk Kamp (Photo: Rijksoverheid.nl/Wikimedia Commons)
Thursday, 12 May 2016 - 15:30
Economic Min. used private email for work; account hacked
Minister Henk Kamp of Economic Affairs reported that his private email account was hacked. This would have been nothing more than an annoyance, except for the fact that he regularly received work email on his private Gmail account, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said to Nieuwsuur.
Kamp reported the hack in 2014. A criminal investigation was done, but no one was arrested as there was not sufficient evidence of an actual hack. It seems likely that the Minister fell victim to so-called "email spoofing" in which you receive a mail that seems to be from one place, but is actually from another.
This is good news, because email spoofing does not require an email account to be hacked. This means that the perpetrators did not have access to Kamp's inbox, and therefore not to the work emails sent to the account.
It is against the rules for politicians to have work-related emails sent to personal accounts. The official work accounts have extra security to make sure that sensitive documents and information are not seen by unwanted eyes.
The Public Prosecutor prepared a report on the potential hack, even though it seems that Kamp's work emails were not viewed by hackers. The Prosecutor also informed the Ministries of Security and Justice and Economic Affairs, as well as intelligence services AIVD, MIVD.