While surfing the Internet last August, 23 year-old telecommunications student Alvaro Martinez spotted a security fault in the Internet connection of prime minister Felipe Gonzalez’s Madrid residence, La Moncloa. The Moncloa window provides information about the premier’s activities. Martinez concluded that a program for electronic mail had been used which was not 100% hacker-proof, and that the presidential system could end up catching a virus. But rather than get into the system himself to start copying information, Martinez rang the palace to express his concern. He even volunteered to rectify the problem himself, an offer that the programme director at La Moncloa, Juan Varilla, gratefully accepted. Five minutes was all that was needed for Martinez and two student colleagues to put the fault right. He simply substituted the programme for a different version which provided better protection against hackers. Varilla played down the incident, suggesting that the security risk had never been serious, although he admitted he had failed to noticed anything himself. Martinez and his friends may have left the palace empty-handed, but they have been invited back to the soon-to-be-held official opening of the Moncloa window.
