French Power Company Fined For Hacking Greenpeace 196
judgecorp writes "Electricite de France (EDF) which uses nuclear reactors to generate the majority of France's electricity, has been found guilty of hacking into Greenpeace computers in 2006. EDF has been fined fined €1.5 million and ordered to pay Greenpeace a further half a million euros, for what the judge described as an act of 'industrial scale espionage.'"
Um, OK. (Score:5, Interesting)
As long as this rule applies both ways -i.e. if Greenpeace were to hack into the computers if some other company, they would be fined a more or less equal amount- then I can't say I see any problem with it.
Re:a hefty bill? (Score:5, Interesting)
I used to think like that, but then I worked for a company that cost several hundred million to build. Millions of dollars came in and left through the place on a daily basis at times. They only got to keep pennies on the dollar and most of the money had to go towards the loans and other investors. There were times the company had tens of thousands on its books as usable, owned, cash.
You can't judge cost to build as the standard for something like this. The investors and owners, probably could come up with that easily. The company itself if there are enough shield corporations between it and the owners? Hard to say.
Re:Kinda low (Score:5, Interesting)
.
The Kargus guy involved got 3 years, and the hacker himself 2, but with 18 months suspended.
AFP report here [google.com]
Re:a hefty bill? (Score:4, Interesting)
They could easily get their numbers down to nuclear levels but it wouldn't be economical in any sense...
and they might need....wait for it....
government loan guarantees to be able to build such expensive plants.
Lets talk about construction versus operation. Exactly how many people die from solar panels simply sitting on a roof? Does your nuclear figure include the construction costs of the plants? Wind ditto. It just sits there spinning and as long as you aren't within a few hundred yards on a *very* windy day...zero casualties.