http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/southwest/chi-0206250293jun25.story June 25, 2002 A former employee of Near North Insurance Brokerage Inc. was sued by the firm Monday in federal court, accused of illegally accessing tens of thousands of the firm's private e-mails and providing their contents to competitors. The Chicago brokerage firm has asked the U.S. attorney's office and FBI to launch an investigation. The lawsuit seeks $645,000 in damages. Company Chairman Fred Foreman said in a news release that none of the customers' records were tampered with or modified. Two other former Near North employees allegedly were involved in the scheme and were named as co-defendants. Near North employees discovered the alleged hacking in May. The lawsuit contends that three days after David Cheley was let go at Near North, he improperly got into Near North's computer eight times. In September he began a new job and repeatedly accessed Near North's computer system over several months. The lawsuit contends that from March 12 to April 17 Cheley accessed 20,000 Near North e-mail messages marked "important" or "confidential" or "urgent," the lawsuit said. The content of the e-mails was given to Near North's competitors, potential business partners and organizations involved in litigation against the company, according to the complaint. Cheley could not be reached for comment. Also named in the lawsuit were Craig Jongsma and Douglas Sikora, who couldn't be reached for comment either. A spokesman said both employees knew they were going to lose their jobs before the hacking was discovered. The lawsuit accuses Sikora of withholding telephone records that linked Cheley to the scheme. - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomoat_private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
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