Ethisphere News and Commentary Blog

Document Protection/Destruction

Employee Fined $13,000 for Drunken Hacking

March 25th, 2008

Indiana resident James M. DiBlasio woke up to more than a hangover the morning after a three-day drinking binge. At some point during the 72 hours that he was drunk he managed to hack into the Denver-based server of his employer, Ski.com, and change various data such as flight reservations and contact information. […]

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Alpha Mining Systems Wins $19.7 Million from Trade Secret Theft

February 4th, 2008

A Florida man has been found guilty of dishing out company trade secrets from his former employer, Alpha Mining Systems, to competitors. Alpha, a global manufacturer of industrial mining tires, won a $19.7 million judgment against Sam Vance, the company’s former sales and marketing manager. The judge ruled that Vance gave competitors more […]

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Trojan Horse of the 21st Century Targets Corporate Executives

October 4th, 2007

MessageLabs Inc, A company designed to protect electronic communications for its business clients, recently discovered a new method for online computer thieves to steal confidential data.  This time the hackers are aimed directly at CEOs.

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Mesa Airlines CFO Scrambled to Erase Porn, Not Valuable Evidence

September 27th, 2007

Mesa Air Group said on Tuesday that CFO Peter Murnane wasn’t deleting important company data when he used special file-erasing software on his three computers. Rather, he was trying to get rid of pornographic material he had collected on the job.

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Two Silicon Valley Engineers Indicted for Economic Espionage

September 27th, 2007

Two Silicon Valley engineers set to go on trial for stealing trade secrets had their charges upgraded on Wednesday to economic espionage. Economic espionage, though rarely charged, is the most serious crime under the 1996 Economic Espionage Act.

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6,000 Internal Emails Exposed After Employee’s Gmail Account Gets Hacked

September 21st, 2007

Nine months of internal emails were stolen earlier this month from MediaDefender, an anti-piracy firm used by recording companies and Hollywood studios. A group devoted to countering anti-piracy measures, aptly named MediaDefender-Defenders, claimed responsibility for the theft. After obtaining the documents, MediaDefender-Defenders dispersed the emails digitally through peer-to-peer programs.
Now the emails are posted on […]

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Fidelity National discloses theft of 2.3 million customer financial records by employee

August 22nd, 2007

What happened to the good old days, when employees just raided the supply closet? Fidelity National reported that the personal data of as many as 8.5 million customers was taken by a senior database administrator at the company. The company suggested that this number, up from initial reports from Fidelity of 2.3 […]

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Oops. FTC fails to effectively redact Whole Foods documents before releasing them

August 15th, 2007

It’s really hard to close the barn door AFTER the cow has left, but that is what the FTC is trying to do. The Federal Trade Commission accidentally disclosed confidential trade secrets of Whole Foods yesterday in a court filing.
At issue was that in trying to protect competitive secrets, court officials […]

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You quit. Stock jumps $1.7+ billion. How does that feel? Ask Qualcomm’s GC

August 13th, 2007

Qualcomm Inc. announced today the resignation of General Counsel Lou Lupin. Lupin had been known for his aggressive “take no prisoners” approach. Carol Lam, a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, was named his interim successor. Analysts are thinking that in pushing Lupin out […]

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Bad judgement from an Ivy League Grad… destroys competitor’s trade secrets with hydrogen peroxide

August 1st, 2007

A Long Island man pleaded guilty on Wednesday of conspiring to destroy a rival company’s product. Robert A. Schetty, III, 42, a vice president of Technic, Inc., coordinated an attempt to place hydrogen peroxide in a bath of chemicals used by rival company Rohm and Haas, Co. to test their new electroplating solution. […]

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No naked, swearing, smoking avatars please…IBM develops code of conduct for employees’ “online life”

July 29th, 2007

Online virtual worlds like “Second Life” continue to grow at a rapid clip. Commerce, business meetings, and other far racier ‘encounters’ are becoming more commonplace in these virtual worlds.
To help protect its reputation, IBM announced this week that it was establishing a code of conduct to govern its more than 5,000 employees who […]

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Former Pfizer Employee Sues over Data Breach…

July 20th, 2007

A former Pfizer employee is trying to get a class action lawsuit filed against the company after 17,000 of Pfizer’s employees had sensitive personal information posted online by a third party. The information included names, social security numbers, cell phone numbers and “bonus information”.
The suit is asking for Pfizer to provide long-term identity theft […]

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Europe’s largest bank and one of continent’s largest hedge funds busted for insider trading…

June 23rd, 2007

As the Times in the U.K. reports… GLG Partners, the £10 billion London-based hedge fund, has been hit with its second insider trading fine from the French financial regulator, Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF) , within the past six months.
Underscoring the severity of the misconduct, this was the largest fine that AMF could have levied.
At […]

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CVS sued by Texas Attorney General over dumping of customers sensitive records…

April 17th, 2007

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott announced a lawsuit against CVS after customer records with personal information such as driver license and credit card numbers were found in the trash behind one of the drugstore chain’s Texas stores.

According to Reuters…
Investigators with the office of the attorney general found the documents in a dumpster behind a […]

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