The case of “Panama papers” or what was revealed in the biggest data leakage

After the major scandal involving WikiLeaks shocked the international community, it seemed that there is nothing scandalous left. However, now it is clear that we all were wrong. Several days ago the case of Panama papers managed to stun the public by revealing confidential offshore schemes used by world leaders. The leakage of 2,6 terabytes of files exposes tax havens that were used to flush millions of dollars. Among the most sensational names there is the UK Prime Minister David Cameron, the president of Russia Vladimir Putin, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and many more. However, what are Panama papers and why did they cause such backlash on the international area?

The current data leakage was entitled as “Panama papers” due to the related Panamanian law firm called Mossack Fonseca. Though this company was founded in the latter country, it has been working on hiding private finances in offshore businesses in different states. According to the leaked information, Mossack Fonseca was hiding over 214,488 offshore entities. To make matters worse, the most of them was owned by more than 143 politicians who were also exposed in Panama Papers. While some of leaked names were expected, others caused amazement.

First of all, it was uncovered that the UK David Cameron’s father has been using the services of Mossack Fonseca to cover his financial assets held in Blairmore Holdings Inc. In addition, public figures from former Soviet countries, such as China and Russia, have also received the backlash. $2bn was traced to Vladimir Putin. The financial scheme resulted in the storage of the money from Russian banks in offshore businesses. Though the Russian president was not mentioned directly, the leak includes names of his closest advisors. The leader of the People’s Republic of China is tangled in the story as well. The documents revealed that he has financial assets in offshore banks, despite his propagandistic anti-corruption policy led against the party members who have enormous financial possessions.

Experts have made a conclusion that this data leak definitely overrode the WikiLeaks data exposure in 2010. Despite the fresh material for international journalists and critics, there is another moral behind this story. This event has exposed enourmous abilities of hackers to get access to the most valuable international databases. Regarding the past events, the online community is warned once again – stay alert and prefer keeping the minimum amount of valuable private information in the virtual databases.

About the author
Ugnius Kiguolis
Ugnius Kiguolis - The mastermind

Ugnius Kiguolis is a professional malware analyst who is also the founder and the owner of 2-Spyware. At the moment, he takes over as Editor-in-chief.

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