EMC and Wal-Mart in Court Action

January 9, 2006: According to Arkansas -based newspaper, The Benton County Record EMC Corporation and US retail giant, Wal-Mart are to sue a contractor for breaching IP laws.

The The Benton County Record reports that Steven Hettrich, an independent contractor placed at Wal-Mart by recruitment consultants, Mindsphere Technology Group emailed several of pieces of EMC code to his home address from December 17 to December 23 2005.

According to The Record: "The emails contained information and data file attachments that are proprietary and confidential Wal-Mart information and also contained software scripts and other files that are proprietary to EMC and trade secrets, according to the complaint."

The errant engineer's activities were uncovered during a standard Wal-Mart investigation following the termination of Hettrich's contract on December 17th with two weeks' notice. Following the discovery of the emails, Hettrich was arrested and then gaoled for failing to give up his computer equipment and files to the local constabulary.

Email Vigilance
Having finally given up his home data, software and hardware. Hettrich was released from the hoosegow last Friday (the 6th Janaury) to appear before the courts on January 17th.

Neither Wal-Mart nor EMC Corporation has made any comment on the matter as yet. However, the issue does provide a salutary lesson on the management of emails sent from within organisations. The fact that Wal-Mart was alive enough to the possible dangers to carry out an audit following the contractor's employment termination signifies that simple, mechanised endpoint security is not sufficient to protect potentially billions of dollars in intellectual property.

The Wal-Mart/EMC partnership - which sees EMC provide storage for 98% of all Wal-Mart's data - has been a huge success for both organisations. EMC is, however, facing tough competition from providers such as IBM for the prize that is Wal-Mart.

How tight is your email security.

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