Latvia’s cyber ‘Robin Hood’ says he wanted elite to come clean FEATURE 05/21/2010

Latvia’s cyber ‘Robin Hood’ says he wanted elite to come clean

FEATURE 05/21/2010 RIGA — Forget the ponytail. Forget the glasses. Forget every stereotype of a hacker, despite the scifi-geek pseudonym “Neo.” A clean-shaven, 31-year-old married Latvian wearing a buttoned-up shirt sat down this week to explain why he leaked the pay details of public officials onto the Internet. Ilmars Poikans’ exposure of alleged flaws in an austerity drive grabbed headlines and embarrassed the elite in this Baltic nation, which has only just edged out of recession. Snared last week after two months of drip-feeding data via microblogging service Twitter, IT researcher Poikans risks prison. He is unbowed, however, and claims he simply wanted more transparency. “Yes, I acknowledge I risked a lot,” he told said at his first press conference since being released on bail. “I knew the police would come after me sooner or later,” he said. But why, he asked, should he be afraid to give the public the information they needed?... MORE   Source:  The Daily Tribune URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20100521com3.html

COMMENTARY EDITORIAL Doing the right thing FRONTLINE Why concede? FEATURE Latvia’s cyber ‘Robin Hood’ says he wanted elite to come clean NO HOLDS BARRED To be fair DIE HARD III Hocus-PCOS info war SILVER LINING Namfrel weighs in