Michel Van Holten, Director of the European Union Office of the Global Movement Against Corruption, posted a video on Twitter of a Dutch journalist who breached a secret conference of EU defense ministers online.
Van Holten said in a tweet, “Is this Daniel Verlan’s penetration of the meeting of European Union defense ministers? This is how it looked from the inside, a golden comedy.”
The clip showed Verlan, who works for RTL Nieuw, waving as soon as he entered the meeting after the Dutch defense minister had mistakenly posted some login details on Twitter.
Thank you @danielverlaan for hacking a EU defence ministers conference. Apart from a good laugh, I hope it will raise awareness about communication security issues in the EU institutions. If it’s the case , you will be my hero ! #Defence #EU #LetsBeSerious pic.twitter.com/5nj3kNZGmz
— Nathalie Loiseau (@NathalieLoiseau) November 21, 2020
For his part, Josep Borrell, the European Union’s foreign policy coordinator, told Ferlán, “Did you know that you entered a secret conference?” Verlan replied with a laugh, “Yes, yes, I am sorry. I am a journalist from the Netherlands, I apologize for boycotting your conference, I will leave.”
That @danielverlaan hack of the EU defence ministers' meeting? This is how it looked from the inside. Comedy gold. pic.twitter.com/1qvVYKsDpt
— Michiel van Hulten (@mvanhulten) November 20, 2020
Then Boyle warned him, “You know it is a criminal offense, right? You’d better check out quickly before the police arrive,” so Verlan came out immediately, as the screen showed him leaving the meeting room.
Commenting on the European Union notified the authorities, the journalist said in a tweet to him, that this step shows that they need more irrefutable evidence about the means of protection, stressing that they lied when they said that it is not possible to share the secret code only, and indicating that they want to harm a journalist because it was able Whoever exploits their mistakes in protecting the secret meeting, and does not care to fix those mistakes in the first place.
nieuws: ik kreeg toegang tot een geheim online overleg tussen de Europese ministers van Defensie van de 27 landen.
Minister Bijleveld deelde een foto van de meeting met een deel van de pincode, die met een paar pogingen kon worden geraden.https://t.co/sSOOMWPIHK pic.twitter.com/NLO3SpBsPb
— Daniël Verlaan (@danielverlaan) November 20, 2020
In a related context, Natalie Loiseau, Chair of the European Union’s Security and Defense Committee, thanked the journalist Daniel Verlan for penetrating the meeting, because he drew attention to communication security in the European Union institutions and increased awareness about this issue, and ended the tweet by saying, “You will be my hero.”
