The eBay ad read "BlackBerry RIM sold AS IS!" So Eugene Sacks (not his real name), a Seattle computer consultant who always wanted one of the pager-size devices to check his e-mail, sent in a bid. For just $15.50, he bought the wireless device with 4 MB of memory.
The BlackBerry didn't come with a cable, synching station, software or a manual. But it did come with something even more valuable: a trove of corporate data.
After popping a battery into the BlackBerry's back panel, Sacks discovered a few things the previous owner wouldn't have wanted him to see -- more than 200 internal company e-mails from financial services firm Morgan Stanley and a database of more than 1,000 names, job titles (from vice presidents to managing directors), e-mail addresses and phone numbers (some of them home numbers) for Morgan Stanley executives worldwide.
It was all there to read, Sacks said, the minute he turned on the device.
The seller, who asked to remain anonymous, was a former vice president of mergers and acquisitions for Morgan Stanley who'd left the company months earlier.
"If I were Morgan Stanley, I'd be embarrassed," said a source who is an expert in the financial industry. "You should not be able to get that kind of information paying $16 on eBay."
Companies mentioned in the e-mails include technology firms, shipping firms, telecoms and accounting agencies.
The incident serves as a cautionary tale about the ways companies fail to manage sensitive data despite public assurances to the contrary. It also shows how employees who are entrusted with confidential information are often insufficiently trained about the simple yet sophisticated technologies they use.
In addition to personal e-mails that reveal the VP's own Charles Schwab IRA account numbers, the name and phone number of his mother and the amounts he paid for his monthly mortgage, car and Visa bills, the e-mails discuss confidential information about loan terms for Morgan Stanley clients, debt-restructuring strategies for specific companies, preliminary talks for potential merger deals and even some creative ways of interpreting contracts.
In the latter category, an e-mail exchange between two Morgan Stanley employees discusses a client who seems to want to step around the terms of a contract signed with a third party. A Morgan Stanley employee advises telling the company to stay "aboveboard" and follow the letter of the contract.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60052,00.html
The BlackBerry didn't come with a cable, synching station, software or a manual. But it did come with something even more valuable: a trove of corporate data.
After popping a battery into the BlackBerry's back panel, Sacks discovered a few things the previous owner wouldn't have wanted him to see -- more than 200 internal company e-mails from financial services firm Morgan Stanley and a database of more than 1,000 names, job titles (from vice presidents to managing directors), e-mail addresses and phone numbers (some of them home numbers) for Morgan Stanley executives worldwide.
It was all there to read, Sacks said, the minute he turned on the device.
The seller, who asked to remain anonymous, was a former vice president of mergers and acquisitions for Morgan Stanley who'd left the company months earlier.
"If I were Morgan Stanley, I'd be embarrassed," said a source who is an expert in the financial industry. "You should not be able to get that kind of information paying $16 on eBay."
Companies mentioned in the e-mails include technology firms, shipping firms, telecoms and accounting agencies.
The incident serves as a cautionary tale about the ways companies fail to manage sensitive data despite public assurances to the contrary. It also shows how employees who are entrusted with confidential information are often insufficiently trained about the simple yet sophisticated technologies they use.
In addition to personal e-mails that reveal the VP's own Charles Schwab IRA account numbers, the name and phone number of his mother and the amounts he paid for his monthly mortgage, car and Visa bills, the e-mails discuss confidential information about loan terms for Morgan Stanley clients, debt-restructuring strategies for specific companies, preliminary talks for potential merger deals and even some creative ways of interpreting contracts.
In the latter category, an e-mail exchange between two Morgan Stanley employees discusses a client who seems to want to step around the terms of a contract signed with a third party. A Morgan Stanley employee advises telling the company to stay "aboveboard" and follow the letter of the contract.
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,60052,00.html