Black Dragon: UK hacker comes clean on carbon credit thefts

By Michael Szabo LONDON (Reuters) - A British hacker, speaking out for the first time since he was jailed for attempting to steal 8 million euros ($11 million) (6.45 million pounds) in carbon credits, said he was easily able to break into online government and corporate registries. Matthew Beddoes, known online as the Black Dragon, was arrested in November 2011 with two other men for hacking into carbon trading registries including those of Spain and the United Nations, along with the websites of a London-based commodity broker and an online carbon trading marketplace. In March 2013, the men were imprisoned for a combined 5-1/2 years for helping to steal 350,000 credits – worth 3.7 million euros – from an account on Spain's registry, and for attempting to steal a further 426,000 credits from a UN account valued at 4.1 million euros. A carbon credit is a tradable certificate, or permit, that allows a country or organisation to emit one tonne of carbon dioxide or the equivalent mass of another greenhouse gas into the atmosphere.



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