Rotten in the state of Denmark —

Pirate Bay co-founder can be extradited to Denmark over new hacking charges

All this and Gottfrid Svartholm Warg is still on trial in Sweden.

On Monday, a Swedish district court approved a possible extradition (Google Translate) to Denmark for Gottfrid “anakata” Svartholm Warg, a Pirate Bay co-founder. The approval comes after new accusations against Svartholm Warg concerning a major hacking scandal in the adjacent Scandinavian country.

“The district court of Nacka has ruled today that Gottfrid Svartholm Warg may be transferred to Denmark in accordance with the arrest order from Denmark and that he must stay in custody until the transfer can take place, and the state prosecutor continues to have power to apply restrictions on Svartholm Warg's outside contacts,” wrote Jonas Alberg, the district magistrate, in a Swedish-language e-mail to ComputerSweden magazine.

“The transfer must take place no later than five days after the ruling takes force (this ruling may be appealed to Svea superior court within a week). The questions of whether the transfer will actually take place and if yes, when, is not a matter for the district court but is a matter for the state prosecutor to decide in cooperation with the relevant Danish authorities; the district court has just, after considering the request, confirmed that a transfer may take place.”

As we reported earlier this month, Svartholm Warg and another as-yet unnamed Danish co-defendant were accused of illegally accessing the country’s driver’s license database (Google Translate), social security database, the shared IT system across the Schengen zone, and the e-mail accounts and passwords of 10,000 police officers and tax officials. Apparently, all of that data was managed by CSC, a major American IT contractor. If convicted (Danish), the two men could face up to six years in prison.

“I was in court, but the doors were locked, so I couldn’t get any information,” Kristina Svartholm, the suspect’s mother, told Ars by e-mail. “[All I got was] that the court did NOT look at the Danish suspicions as such—not their business, the judge was clear about that, when it comes to extradition between Nordic countries.”

The alleged Denmark hack—particularly the Danish social security numbers (CPR) aspect—has become a major scandal in the Nordic country. It could have significant implications for every Dane (Google Translate), as social security numbers include each person’s birthday within the number itself. Thus, they cannot be easily and substantially changed. Danish media has reported (Google Translate) at least one instance of such data being sold on a Tor-hidden website—although those behind the ad have told the Version2.dk news site that their data cache is unrelated to Svartholm Warg’s case.

In Sweden, where Svartholm Warg is currently being held, the Pirate Bay co-founder was accused of hacking Logica, an IT firm that contracts with the Swedish tax authority. In 2012, Logica was hit by an online attack that resulted in about 9,000 Swedes (Google Translate) having their personal identity numbers released to the public. (In Sweden, most people's identity numbers are public information, but some can be kept private.) Svartholm Warg was also charged with fraud in the country.

According to ComputerSweden’s earlier account of the indictment (Swedish) as published by the Swedish prosecutor, Svartholm Warg allegedly tried to transfer 5.7 million Swedish kronor ($900,000) to various accounts. However, only 27,000 kronor (roughly $4,200) belonging to a Danish trade union was actually transferred out.

The verdict in the Logica trial is expected to come as soon as June 20, 2013.

Channel Ars Technica