Big Blue compromised security, claim
A REMARKABLE case has started against IBM in Washington DC with a law firm accusing Big Blue and an unknown employee of hacking into it and its clients' email.
Butera & Andrews is a law firm based in DC, and the case is being brought under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the Stored Communications Act and the Electronic Communication Privacy Act.
The firm said in its allegation that an employee suspected last October or November that the email server, contracted out to Virginian firm Sierra Corporation, had been compromised.
Butera & Andrews hired a forensics computer investigation firm to track the email traffic. That firm discovered that a computer with the IP address 170.224.68.57 had attempted to gain access to the server. It's alleged that's an IBM IP address registered to its Durham, North Carolina site.
Continued monitoring revealed that other attacks during last November caused multiple denial of service attacks. The investigators also monitored logs from the law firm's clients and discovered 42,000 attempts by 80 different IP addresses registered to IBM Durham, it's alleged.
Further, Butera & Andrews alleges that IBM wipes its logs after 24 hours, after which they're permanently erased. The judge in the case granted IBM extension of time to answer these charges yesterday. Butera & Andrews, based on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington DC, has an impressive list of clients,
here, including the US government, British Airways, British Nuclear Fuels, Credit Lyonnais, the Indian Embassy, and Mitsubishi.
The INQuirer
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