R A Y O N G

At the end of 2002 we dealt with a similarly interesting case.

A company was offered its competitors' confidential data for a price of EUR 5 million in an anonymous letter. The letter arrived in the post, and all further contact was to be made via the e-mail address rayong@xyzmail.com. Because of the highly imaginative description of the scheduled handover of money, the letter was not taken seriously by the police when they were first contacted. corma GmbH was commissioned to take on the case by the two companies, which operate in fair competition with one another. From initial e-mail contacts with the "seller" it then became clear that he/she actually was in possession of the data being offered for sale.

Further communication and the use of mail-tracking techniques then led to the ascertainment of an IP address that was being used by the perpetrators. A detailed report was handed to the police, who then in turn immediately involved the public prosecutor's office. A large amount of evidence was found in two searches of premises. An employee of the company that was the victim of the theft had stolen the data from within the company, and then together with a female outside accomplice had offered them for sale. This case demonstrated very clearly how vulnerable companies become through the use of IT systems, and how difficult it is to safeguard against the loss of information.
On the other hand, the use of the latest technology (tracking) led to a successful outcome.