Subscribe by EmailOffice worker jailed for exposing his ex-boss’s private emails
August 14, 2008 by Mark O'Neill | 6 commentsBy Mark O’Neill
Contributing Writer, [GAS]
A Spanish office worker has been jailed for two years after he “hacked” into the computer of his ex-boss, retrieved hundreds of emails that the man had deleted and then sent them on to lots of other people.
The emails were said to be “highly personal” and contained details such as the man’s sex life. But they then found their way to people such as the ex-boss’s wife, mistress, former colleagues and even the Mayor!
As well as the two year jail term, the villain was also ordered to pay a fine of €3,240 ($4,820) as well as €4,000 ($5,950) in compensation to the former Pointy-Haired Boss, whose reputation – and marriage – must be in tatters by now.
The case was able to be brought to court because of Spain’s strict privacy laws. So as soon as the first email went out, the office worker was in deep doo-doo. Never mind the fact that he hacked his way in. They got him on the privacy violations instead.
A bit like getting Al Capone on tax violations instead of the gangster-related charges. It’s always the little things that bring these people down.
Moral Of The Story – When you think the compromising email is deleted, perhaps it’s really not. Check again!
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dang, there goes my future plan.
True moral of the story? Don’t send compromising email.
Better moral: don’t put in writing anything that you don’t want to see on the front page of the New York Times.
I can’t agree with the Al Capone analogy.
Violating someone’s privacy and causing them deep humiliation seems much more serious to me than unauthorized file retrieval from a computer.
I was just making the point that when taking down people who commit criminal acts, it isn’t always the “big crimes” that the prosecutors focus on but instead the little things. They got Capone for tax evasion and they got this idiot for privacy violations.
I’m not sitting in judgment saying that one crime is more serious than the other.
Hi Mark,
I understand what you’re saying. It is just that to my mind, the privacy violation was the big crime.