Ethisphere News and Commentary Blog

Information Security

News Corp Subsidiary Allegedly Hired Hacker to Develop Piracy Software

April 28th, 2008

EchoStar Communications, the parent company of DISH Network, filed a corporate espionage lawsuit against News Corp’s NDS Group, alleging that the firm hired one of the “two best hackers in the world” to hack into DISH’s satellite network and steal the company’s security codes, according to a report by Reuters. NDS, which provides various […]

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Naturalized U.S. Citizen Caught Allegedly Attempting to Give Trade Secrets to China

April 4th, 2008

Who says random airport searches don’t work? United States customs officials discovered that Hanjuan Jin, 37, a China-born U.S. citizen, was allegedly trying to leak confidential trade secrets from her former U.S. employer to a China-based rival when they searched her luggage at

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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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The UK Warns of Potential Security Threat from Chinese-Sponsored Hackers

December 12th, 2007

Jonathan Evans, the head of the UK’s MI5, recently sent a letter out to 300 British business leaders warning them to be wary of a possible Chinese espionage attack. Since then, the UK’s Times has reported that both Rolls-Royce and Shell have already been hit by “sustained spying assaults” from Chinese government-backed hackers. […]

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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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Casual Male wins $1.5 million judgment over non-compete and misappropriation of trade secrets

August 21st, 2007

Casual Male won a $1.5 million settlement against both a former associate and a competitor.
A jury determined that Robert Yarbrough broke his contract with the company after he violated non-competition obligations and leaked company secrets. He was charged with $1.1 million in damages.
Westport Big & Tall, a competitor of Casual Male, was […]

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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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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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Hedge fund manager pleads guilty in UBS insider trading case…

July 26th, 2007

According to media reports and court filings, a hedge fund trader has pled guilty to buying and selling stocks based on tips about changes in UBS’s analyst stock ratings. The trader, Mark Lenowitz used inside information about planned ratings changes when he traded securities at hedge funds Chelsey Capital and Q Capital Investment […]

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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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