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Executives acquire passwords to a competitor's online catalog to gain competitive intelligence
Incident Date: 2001 Incident Location: San Francisco CA USA Mehdi Rowghani, Geoffrey Michael Glaze, and Kevin Harold Smith were charged in a indictment in January of 2004 on five counts of computer password trafficking in violation of 18 USC Section 1030(a)(6)(A) and ten counts of unauthorized access to a protected computer in violation of 18 USC Section 1030(a)(2)(C) & 1030(c)(2)(B)(i). Mr. Rowghani and Mr. Glaze were executives, and Mr. Smith a consultant, at Dallas European Parts Distributors in Texas, a wholesale distributor of replacement parts for German and Swedish automobiles. Their company was a competitor of SSF Auto Imports Inc., based in San Francisco, CA. SSF operated a Web site for its clients to access an online catalog of replacement automotive parts. Access to the site was limited to authorized users possessing a username and password. Starting in 2001, the defendants allegedly conspired to acquire usernames and passwords of legitimate SSF clients in order to gain unauthorized access to SSF’s online catalog. The defendants then used those credentials to obtain information from the SSF catalog that gave them a competitive advantage. At the time of the press release, Mr. Rowghani had pled not guilty to the charges. Mr. Glaze and Mr. Smith were scheduled to enter their pleas in February 2004. SSF also sued Dallas European Parts Distributors for damages related to the incidents. Story Sources Title: Former Employees of Dallas-based Car Parts Distributorship Charged with Repeatedly Intruding into Competitor's Computer Database… Author: Date: 2/9/2004 Publication: U.S. Attorney Press Release Publication Location: San Francisco CA USA Publication URL: http://www.cybercrime.gov/rowghaniIndict.htm Do you have additional information to contribute regarding this story? If so, please email siteupdates@passwordresearch.com with the details and source.
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