Former Ofcom employee steals general TV broadcasting data and provides it to the TV company that hired him

Mar 13, 2016 00:35 GMT  ·  By

Authorities are looking into the activities of a former Ofcom employee that decided it would be a good idea to take his old employer's data and provide it to the new company that hired him.

Ofcom, or the Office of Communications, is Britain's regulatory and competition authority for the broadcasting, telecommunications and postal industries. Because of role and attribution, Ofcom gathers in-depth data about all broadcasting institutions operating in the UK, through regular inspections and self-submitted reports.

According to a letter sent to broadcasters operating in the UK, Ofcom is informing affected parties of a data breach it suffered this year on February 26.

Former employee stole Ofcom data from the past six years

The UK agency is telling TV broadcasters of an incident in which a former Ofcom employee downloaded around six years of the organization's activity data before leaving the agency to go work for one of the TV companies subject to Ofcom's supervision.

As soon as the employee arrived at his new working place, he provided the stolen data to his new employer, who instead of using it to gain a competitive advantage over its rivals, decided to choose the safe (legal) route and inform Ofcom instead, The Guardian reports.

Insider threats are an enterprise's biggest concern

In a recent study by Absolute Software, 46% of 501 surveyed companies said they fear insider threats (employees) more than hackers, hacktivists and aggressive business competitors.

"The idea that one malicious or disgruntled employee can damage your business by accessing sensitive data is frightening - but it's a valid concern that should be addressed through proper file security measures," said Scott Gordon, COO of file security firm, FinalCode.

"This Ofcom breach shows that securing sensitive information at the file level is the best way to define individual access permission and ensures that you can maintain strong security and control over your data everywhere it travels, inside or outside the organization," Mr. Gordon also told Softpedia.