14 DAY TRIAL // A second man who used to work for T-Mobile UK pleaded guilty this week to having sold confidential customer information from the telecom operator to third parties.
In November 2009, T-Mobile announced that several of its employees stole data from the company's customer database and sold it to various brokers.
The information included contract expiration dates and was apparently used by a rival company to cold call customers and persuade them to switch providers.
Cold calling is the practice of calling someone without any prior contact or notice and offering them a deal. It is similar in concept to spam, but it's done over the phone.
T-Mobile worked with the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) to investigate the data breach and determine its exact circumstances.
"Darren Hames has today pleaded guilty at Warrington Crown Court for two offences under Section 55 of the Data Protection Act (DPA).
"We are pleased with this outcome and now await sentencing which is due to take place in the New Year," the ICO announced [pdf] on Tuesday.
David Turley, 39, of Birmingham, another former T-Mobile employee involved in the scheme, pleaded guilty to 18 similar offenses back in July.
Section 55 of the DPA covers unlawful obtaining of personal data and makes it a criminal offense for people to access such information without authorization.
A survey commissioned in April 2009 revealed that over a third (37%) of workers were willing to sell company data, given the right incentive and that over 80% of them had access to customer databases.
In the T-Mobile case, the investigation revealed that considerable amounts of money were involved in the deal between the corrupted employees and data brokers.
Unfortunately, the cases of workers selling company trade secrets or other confidential data to the competition are relatively common.
Earlier this week we reported that a former Société Générale trader was found guilty of stealing high-frequency trading software code which he planned to use for a similar system at a rival company.