Slovak Intelligence Service (SIS) spokesman Karol Sorby reported on May 21 that the publication of mobile numbers belonging to SIS agents and government ministers on the internet was a serious violation of privacy.
On May 19, Slovak fixed-line operator Slovak Telecom published the mobile numbers of several ministers along with 718 numbers belonging to people affiliated with the SIS on its zoznam.sk website. The SIS numbers were removed from the site on May 20, while the rest remained available.
The situation might have been caused by zoznam.sk's launch of a new service last week that enables users to search for both fixed-line and mobile numbers.
The numbers appear to have been published by accident a week ago but the mistake was not noticed immediately. The phone numbers concerned appeared along with hundreds of other numbers belonging to T-Mobile, Orange and T-Com customers, which also should not have been revealed.
The National Security Bureau (NBÚ) is currently unable to confirm or deny whether there has been a leak of confidential data.
Fixed-line operator Slovak Telekom (ST) announced that it cannot do anything about the contents of phone directories published by mobile operators but has asked two of Slovakia's three mobile operators, T-Mobile Slovensko and Orange Slovensko, to provide new (revised) phone directories.
"ST and Zoznam have agreed upon a temporary deactivation of the list available on the zoznam.sk website, as far as mobile numbers are concerned," a statement provided by Jana Burdová, head of ST's department of external communication, reads.
Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák, whose mobile-phone number was among those published, is concerned that the internet list may have blown the cover of some SIS employees.
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
