Police launch investigation after Estonian minister’s email hacked

Estonian police have launched a criminal investigation after  Estonia's Interior Minister and Police Chief and others emails were hacked, delfi.ee reports.

Estonia's Interior Minister Hanno Pevkur, Chief of Police, Mr Elmar Vaher and more than ten other officials found their mailboxes blocked last week although details were not stolen.

The incident  is allegedly being linked to a former employee of the Interior Ministry’s IT development department, writes Eesti Päevaleht.

"A criminal investigation has begun, therefore we cannot comment on the incident," said prosecutor Piret Paukštis.

Eesti Päevaleht further reports Pevkur received an anonymous letter from a former specialist at the IT development department, accusing the unit of abusing spyware to keep tabs on its own employees.  The letter claims that the Estonian ministry is using the FinSpy software for this purpose.

It's not the first time accusations have been leveled against the ministry. In April, a former employee accused the ministry's IT department of  setting up a system "in principle, equal to the PRISM system allowing to gather compromising material on its employees."