Hackers help loggers steal wood

Greenpeace said that logging companies have used hackers to evade limits on tree felling in Brazil.

The Brazilian environment ministry did away with paper dockets and two years ago introduced an online system.

The Greenpeace report said the cybercriminals hacked into the system, which is designed to monitor logging in the Brazilian state of Para.

Once they had been able to do this, the hackers issued fake permits so loggers could cut down far more timber than environmental officials were prepared to allow.

The environmental activist group said it has estimated that nearly two million cubic metres of illegal timber may have been removed with the aid of the hackers.

It said this was enough to fill 780 Olympic-sized swimming pools. The sums of money involved are also huge, and the public prosecutor is suing the companies responsible for two billion reais (£540.12m).

According to federal prosecutor Daniel Avelino, many of these companies have a track record of illegal practices: "Almost half of the companies involved in this scam have other law suits pending for environmental crimes or the use of slave labour, amongst other things."