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Czech President Milos Zeman has alleged that hackers based in the US state of Alabama put child pornography on one of his computers a year ago, his official website said Monday.
The ex-communist known for staunch anti-Muslim, pro-Russian and pro-Chinese views announced earlier this month that he would run for a second five-year term in January’s presidential election.
“About a year ago, someone installed child pornography on my computer,” Zeman said, according to a transcript of an interview with the Frekvence 1 commercial radio station posted to his website.
“I looked at it for about 10 seconds before I realised what was going on,” said Zeman, a 72-year-old veteran leftwinger and the first-ever directly elected Czech head of state.
Zeman added that he had initially considered filing a criminal complaint, but then changed his mind after consulting his IT staff.
Hackers have also targeted other senior Czech officials.
Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek said in January that hackers had compromised his official email account as well as dozens of others belonging to ministry employees.
Zaoralek said the data leak was “considerable” but that no classified information had been stolen.
Politicians worldwide are falling prey to hack attacks with ever increasing frequency.
US intelligence in January accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering a campaign of hacking and media manipulation aimed at undermining Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign in favour of Donald Trump.
Last October, Czech police arrested a Russian hacker in Prague in cooperation with the FBI and accused him of staging cyber attacks on the United States.
The hacker is in custody in the Czech Republic pending extradition to the United States or Russia as both countries have asked Prague to hand over the suspect.
