Voter email leak took place in May-June 2023, Interior Ministry audit finds

The email addresses of thousands of Greek voters abroad were leaked between May and June 2023, an Interior Ministry internal audit has found.

The inquiry was ordered after New Democracy MEP Anna-Michelle Asimakopoulou sent a mass email to Greeks abroad as part of her re-election campaign in June’s European elections. She since withdrew her candidacy.

Interior Ministry Niki Kerameos and her deputy, Theodoros Livanios, handed over the findings of the audit into the leak to a prosecutor and to the president of the Personal Data Protection Authority.

The ministry said a “non-institutional” transfer of data within the ministry, involving the personal data of Greeks overseas who had registered to vote in the 2023 parliamentary elections, took place between May and June 2023.

The conclusion recommends that disciplinary action be taken and includes recommendations “to further strengthen security measures in relation to the protection of personal data.”

Asimakopoulou later stated that she received the leaked email addresses from New Democracy’s secretary for diaspora affairs, Nikos Theodoropoulos, who was sacked from his post in the wake of the controversy.