Firm sues ex-employees over hacking

[InfoSec News <isn () c4i org>]

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/southwest/chi-0206250293jun25.story

June 25, 2002

A former employee of Near North Insurance Brokerage Inc. was sued by
the firm Monday in federal court, accused of illegally accessing tens
of thousands of the firm's private e-mails and providing their
contents to competitors.

The Chicago brokerage firm has asked the U.S. attorney's office and
FBI to launch an investigation. The lawsuit seeks $645,000 in damages.

Company Chairman Fred Foreman said in a news release that none of the
customers' records were tampered with or modified.

Two other former Near North employees allegedly were involved in the
scheme and were named as co-defendants.

Near North employees discovered the alleged hacking in May. The
lawsuit contends that three days after David Cheley was let go at Near
North, he improperly got into Near North's computer eight times.

In September he began a new job and repeatedly accessed Near North's
computer system over several months. The lawsuit contends that from
March 12 to April 17 Cheley accessed 20,000 Near North e-mail messages
marked "important" or "confidential" or "urgent," the lawsuit said.

The content of the e-mails was given to Near North's competitors,
potential business partners and organizations involved in litigation
against the company, according to the complaint.

Cheley could not be reached for comment. Also named in the lawsuit
were Craig Jongsma and Douglas Sikora, who couldn't be reached for
comment either. A spokesman said both employees knew they were going
to lose their jobs before the hacking was discovered. The lawsuit
accuses Sikora of withholding telephone records that linked Cheley to
the scheme.



-
ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org

To unsubscribe email majordomo () attrition org with 'unsubscribe isn'
in the BODY of the mail.