Advice whether criminal act or not

[996ttalot]

The initial message was deleted from this topic on 13 August 2010 at 01:53

[tybalt]

Sounds pretty weak to me. But it's difficult to make out what you are talking about. I would be surprised if you can interest the police.

[eldritch]

how are they making money out of it? doesnt sound like its criminal and to be honest it only sounds like you can dismiss them if they signed an acceptable use policy stating what they can and cant do. unless they are blackmailing you etc you dont really make it clear.

[scirocco265]

From what you have put in the above post, I would say that it remains purely a civil matter.

[stigmundfreud]

anonymous said:

[redacted]

That is quite honestly shocking and disgusting when you consider the work you are in. Totally unprofessional and not the sort of action I'd expect to see from you.

Any of this information surrounding personal data, if so, that there hotmail account usage could see you in a fair bit of the brown stuff as far as the ico are concerned.

[stigmundfreud]

I wasn't trying to be a DPA bore but unfortunately it is a legal requirement and if your IT dept are not providing you with a viable alternative you can hire my services and I'll deliver it to you.

The reason I mentioned it is that as you know its a requirement and you of all people should realise the importance of working within it. Personally I find it all, especially the risk culture stuff to be bullst but its there and its a requirement. It isnt about whether your hotmail is hacked, its about where the data is stored. You could get away with it your entire career (which is plausable considering all the facts) but it still worries me that a legal eagle would take such a cavalier approach. If your IT dept are not delivering the goods you need to get someone in to do it for you.

Even where I work the remote access is a joke, its as if it is bleeding edge technology which it isnt. Legal firms are the same, even the big players I just find it ammusing. Sorry if I presented myself as one of the risk players, I work in the field and as said find it a joke. In fact, its mostly awash now with graduates that look at risk in the nth degree because its how they are taught. Shame really but the fact still remains you have to consider the law, hotmail is a no no due to EEA ste, if you are to use an external mail make sure its at least based within the EEA, its not that hard to remain closer to the grey area

[996ttalot]

Thanks for all the posts.

I am sorry for keeping the post a little vague, but after initial investigation it seems that an employee has been sending confidential information to a third party. Furthermore that employee has also been receiving information from that third party requesting information etc. There is clear collusion with respect to the unfair dismissal case that I mentioned. It is a bit of a nightmare to say the least. A full investigation is now taking place.

To clarify one point about taking home information etc and so on. It depends on what is in the staff handbook, policies etc. However, a document that is marked strictly confidential for addresses only and internal use, that is then distributed to a third party is theft of company property, unless the said document contains information of a criminal nature e.g. the company or individual was committing a criminal act - fraud etc.

It is civil in the case of any damage done to the company, but it could be criminal if the person distributing the document was doing so for monetary benefit. I know, having worked in a lot of IT departments etc that it is quite common for people to take work home etc, however there is a big difference if you are not suppose to have those documents in the first place.