Vodaphones tapped ??

[tycho102]

It seems the 2004 Greek Olympics had a bunch of phones tapped, by using "conference calling" and pre-paid cell phones.

Here's the story.

From before the 2004 Olympics, until March 2005, about 100 mobile phone numbers of politicians (amongst them also the prime minister) and official offices have been tapped by unknowns. One number under "surveillance" seems to have belonged also to the american embassy. In March 2005 the installation was discovered by an audit (or a check up) from Ericsson technicians, and the officials were informed. Not until today though, was the public and ADAE ("Hellenic Authority for the Information and Communication Security and Privacy") informed. The mobile phones were tapped by stealth software in the providers systems...

This was going on for over a year, and they (Vodafone) just recently discovered it. There's about a dozen possibilities that spring to mind, obviously, but the end result is still a question of motive. It could be business related (such as helping to "determine" a future Olympic host country), and it could have been counter-terrorism.