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Swedish FM's blog posts racy ads after hack

TT/Vivian Tse
TT/Vivian Tse - [email protected]
Swedish FM's blog posts racy ads after hack

Recent hacks on Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt's blog have resulted in the site briefly displaying ads for Russian wives, Danish capital advisers and motivational speakers.

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"We haven't removed them, they just disappeared on their own. I haven't seen them myself, but journalists have commented on them. We don't allow ads on his blog," Carl Bildt's press secretary Anna Charlotta Johansson explained to The Local on Tuesday.

On at least three occasions this month, the WordPress-hosted blog has been manipulated to show "ads by Google" between each post after Bildt had made new entries before disappearing shortly afterwards.

According to the minister, hackers were behind the attack.

"There is obviously some hacking going on," Bildt told news agency TT on Tuesday when asked whether he had started selling ads on his popular blog, which both he and the foreign ministry said is not the case.

Since it began in 2005, the blog, which is entitled "Alla dessa dagar" (All these days), has received over 7 million hits. Given its semi-official status somewhere between Sweden's official foreign policy and Bildt's own person views, it has become a must-read for anyone interested in Sweden's line and major foreign events.

Johansson emphasised that rumours that Bildt will close his blog as a result are false.

"This is something that happens. People wonder if he will delete his blog and he won't. An open society means people can have blogs. This is unfortunately something that will happen now and then," she told The Local.

Bildt has advised blog readers to "exercise vigilance" regarding the presence of various "more or less suspicious ads."

One of the first ads appeared after Bildt wrote an entry during a meeting in Kazakhstan. Readers were shocked to view an ad imploring them to click a link to "Find a Russian wife - Beautiful Russians seeking Love & Marriage. View 1,000's of photos."

One week later, the blog advertised "Carl Bildt - Book leading & inspiring speaker at The London Speaker Bureau."

Two days before Christmas, it was time for "EU Tips - Professional financial advice from local experts around the world" from Danske invest.

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