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Ex-Intel employee charged with Data theft
IT employees have been taking data theft and IT security policies lightly. They think they need not follow them and at times believe they can get away by stealing data. We are not talking about petty thieves here but white-collar employees who can go to lengths to earn money and brand name.
The latest data theft case involves such an IT employee who thought he would get away by stealing data worth $400 billion!
Here goes the story
An ex-Intel engineer, Biswamohan Pani, stole documents worth $200 million – $400 million from Intel. He has pled guilty to stealing the documents and for 5 counts of fraud. Currently he is waiting to hear his sentence.
The case
The case will be heard in US District Court by Judge F. Dennis Saylor in Worcester, Massachusetts. Mr. Biswamohan worked at Intel’s Hudson, Massachusetts location in 2008. He put down his resignation at Intel on May 29, 2008 and requested his last day of work be June 11, 2008. At that time he was already employed by rival AMD and had access to the Intel computer systems.
As he had access to Intel computer systems, he started downloading confidential documents from Intel related to design and manufacture of computer processors. The moment Intel found out, it reported the theft and AMD cooperated with the investigation. What is bizarre is that AMD never asked Mr.Pani to steal the documents, nor were these used by anyone at AMD. Pani is looking at 20 years in prison on each of the five counts of fraud. Pani’s sole purpose for this theft was to boost his career!
AMD official’s statement
“AMD respects the intellectual property of other companies. AMD was completely unaware of Mr. Pani’s actions until we were contacted by the FBI, and we provided our full and prompt cooperation with the investigation.”
The documents were seized by Intel from Mr.Biswamohan’s home.
The justice department’s statement
‘The FBI was able to recover these documents quickly, before Pani could use them to Intel’s disadvantage, largely because Intel reported the theft quickly and assisted the investigation,’.
Corporate espionage and intellectual property theft, in the form of trade secrets, schematics, or other proprietary information is a treasure cove in the wrong hands and a recipe for disaster.
Pani’s lawyer has refused to comment about Pani’s defense.
More about intellectual property theft
More than often intellectual property theft goes unnoticed simply because it cannot be seen the way other thefts are visible. It involves stealing or misusing proprietary information of a company. Intellectual property theft can result in serious financial loss.
Alertsec protects intellectual property theft
It is clear that the security of world’s large corporations is at risk. In the absence of full disk encryption, valuable files can be accessed. To keep your sensitive data safe from thefts and hacking, it is vital to use Data encryption software. Data loss prevention systems can also reduce the loss of information. Investing $13/month gives an organization peace of mind. A very small price to pay compared to losing high-quality or sensitive data. Alertsec Xpress offers a very good and easy-to-use laptop security service that includes more than the traditional software licensing model.
