An insider at Acme Tele Power downloaded the intellectual property of his employer – patents and R&D innovations – and sent it to a rival firm. Experts at InfoWatch have expressed surprise at how the Indian telecom firm could leave such valuable information unprotected, especially when preventing such a leak is very straightforward.
Indian telecommunications firm Acme Tele Power has accused a former employee of stealing valuable data. According to a complaint made to local police, Sachida Nand Patnaik, a former deputy manager in the research and design department, stole high level data packages (patents and the results of innovative work) and sent them via e-mail.
The theft reportedly took place in April 2006. The company has also accused Surendra Goyal, the managing director of rival firm Lamda Private Limited, of the same offence. The company only found out about the data theft when an Acme client told them that their products were being used and sold by Lamda Private Limited. The main server in the company was then thoroughly scanned and it was found that Patnaik transferred the data to his personal e-mail account on April 1, 2006.
“This is, unfortunately, a typical case of industrial espionage. The insider at Acme Tele Power used his position to sell the intellectual property of his employer and he chose the most common leakage channel there is – e-mail. By using a specialized filter for e-mail correspondence that blocks leaks in real time preventing the leak would have been very simple,” points out Denis Zenkin, marketing director at InfoWatch.
Source: Express India
