Mumbai, July 2 The Cyber Crime Investigation Cell (CCIC) of the Mumbai Police is currently conducting investigations in a case of possible corporate data theft, in which a former employee of a leading IT company illegally logged into the firm’s data network and stole sensitive information by sending data files to his personal e-mail address.
The company, which provides market research, data collection, analytics and online marketing services to global clients, has approached the police with a complaint that the suspected data thief is about to join a rival company in Chennai, armed with sensitive information belonging to his former employers.
On June 24, the CCIC received a complaint from two officials from Ugam Solutions based at Malad Link Road in Goregaon (West), regarding the data theft. “We have received a complaint regarding data theft from Ugam Solutions by a former employee, and the Cyber Crime Cell is conducting preliminary inquiries in the matter,” Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) Rakesh Maria said.
According to the company’s website, with over 800 professionals across Mumbai, London, San Francisco and Chicago, Ugam Solutions is an Indian-owned company with a global presence, and one of the world’s largest providers of market research outsourcing services.
The company informed the police that on a Sunday last month, a senior programmer who had not been showing up at work for several days reported to office. Since he had been absent for several days, his access to the office through a swipe card had been blocked by technicians. However, since the watchman at the office recognised him as an employee, he was let in after he signed his name in a visitor's entry book.
When his superiors later learns that the senior programmer had visited the office on a holiday, their suspicions were aroused. On alerting the technical staff of the company, investigations revealed that the employee had logged into the office’s internal network and sent himself data files containing sensitive information.
“The company’s investigations revealed that a senior programmer, who did not have access to the company’s internal network from outside office, entered the office on a holiday and sent confidential and sensitive data of about 4 MB size to his personal e-mail address. He never returned to the office after that. The company now fears that this man is about to take its trade secrets and join a rival company in Chennai,” said a police source, on conditions of anonymity.
When contacted, Iran Kareem, vice president (Finance) at Ugam said: “There has been an attempt at data pilferage, in which a former employee has accessed our proprietory methodology.”
By Sagnik Chowdhury
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