$1 Blank CD Could Lead To 10-year Prison Term

Like the woman found guilty of illegally downloading music from the internet and fined a monster $1.9 million USD, a man in Japan may face stiff penalties for downloading, stealing and monetizing 50,000 customer accounts from his employer, Mitsubishi UFJ.

News agencies in Japan are reporting that a former acting manager at Mitsubishi UFJ Securities has admitted to data theft and illegal computer access during his tenure in the systems department.

Using the ID of a female temp staffer, Hideaki Kubo admitted illegally accessing and retrieving personal information on approximately 1.5 million Mitsubishi UFJ customers.

It’s being said that Kubo first pulled encrypted sensitive customer data from a database and then ordered a subordinate to copy that data to a CD Kubo ’stole’ from the company supply room.

What Kubo did next was to upload this data to various mailing lists in return for almost $4,000 USD in payment.

For Kubo’s unauthorized access to UFJ customer data, he faces a possible 1-year prison term or a fine of up to $5,000 USD.

For the one dollar CD he stole from the UFJ supply closet, Kubo faces a potential 10-year prison term.

With his head buried in his lap, Kubo was escorted from a Tokyo police station on his way to court for arraignment. He appeared embarrassed and ashamed.

Stealing data off the company network almost always ends in bad results. Even behavior that can be perceived as unlawful will put you treading in dangerous waters — Like deciding to remove or ‘archive’ sensitive data off company servers, or simply stealing supplies like technical textbooks and manuals. All are grounds for punitive action.

The spotlight is even brighter on those who have privileged account access like Kubo. So for Kubo [or anyone else with privileged access] to make this kind of blunder is just plain dumb. You may think you can’t be fired over a paper clip. Think again.