by Lina Ambre2:44pm on Tuesday 27th July 2021
Yulai, Genesis – Secure Commerce Commission facilities across New Eden have been breached by the Guristas, leading to followup raids on SCC Encounter Surveillance System reserve banks by the infamous pirate group. Chaotic scenes are reported at SCC facilities with security wide open as secure data and even ISK accounts have been exposed to attack by hackers and criminal gangs.
CONCORD's Inner Circle has demanded an investigation into these events just as an agreed reduction in funding for the New Eden Defense Fund, and consequent SCC tax and brokerage reductions have come into force. The locations of many SCC secure facilities have been exposed by the data leaks and CONCORD has rushed additional security forces and defense systems to these sites. While the additional defenses will deter many, the allure of the vast quanities of ISK still remaining in ESS reserve banks across New Eden is likely to prove irresistible for hardened criminals and capsuleer pirates.
Above: SCC Encounter Surveillance System in 9F-7PZ, Branch region
The Guristas raids on SCC secure key storage and ESS vaults are believed to have made off with trillions in ISK, valuable financial data, and security access codes. Security analysts are speculating that a series of recent raids by the Guristas have been a prelude to this "grand heist", allowing them to assemble a picture of certain locations, procedures and vital protocols ahead of the massive raids.
Just this last weekend a Guristas force raided a number of facilities in Autaris system, ostensibly to gain access to Caldari House of Records archives. However, in light of the massive multi-location heist of SCC facilities, the House of Records infiltration may itself have been misdirection as a number of CONCORD stations are located in Autaris.
Financial markets across New Eden are reeling at the news of the heists, just as SCC tax and brokerage changes come online. Such is the disruption to the systems that a significant quantity of ISK has been routed through tax rebate and claims systems, with huge numbers of citizens claiming this unexpected and unauthorized largesse. CONCORD and empire law-enforcement believe the rebate claims system has itself been hacked and activated en masse as a means for the Guristas to steal yet more ISK, with the side effect that it is leading to large payouts for all manner of citizens probably viewed as "a joke or useful public image propaganda by the Guristas."
In response to questions as he left an SCC briefing, Captain Marshal Sirdan xer Qosh, Amarr Delegate to the Inner Circle, commented, "These events only underline the correctness of the Imperial Court's view that CONCORD and EDENCOM have both been guilty of dreadful mismanagement of the interstellar financial and security systems." Ambassador Devan Malate of the Gallente Federation added, "While I often disagree with Captain Marshal xer Qosh, it must be said that in this case he has put his finger on the essence of the problem: CONCORD's bureaucracy is often as complacent as it is arrogant."
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