Boeing Proprietary Theft Trial Begins
March 28th, 2008
On March 25, 2008 the trial of former Boeing employee Gerald Eastman got underway.
It started off with Judge Monica Benton giving a stark warning and rebuke to Eastman, who had arrived late.
“You’re either on time, or you’re in jail,”.
Eastman is charged with theft of Boeing data and 16 counts of computer infraction and then passing the company data on to various Seattle newspapers, most notably the Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer.
Having worked at the company for over 18 years, Eastman was unceremoniously arrested at his desk in May 2006. For three years, Boeing’s own investigative team had no luck in identifying the source of the leaks to the press until a tip off had named Eastman as the individual trawling through the Boeing network for proprietary and sensitive information he could use to threaten his employer with.
Image courtesy of Boeing
In this article from the Seattle-PI, Eastman wanted to be paid off in exchange for his silence on alleged quality assurance problems within Boeing.
“Eastman mentioned an out-of-court settlement with Boeing,” [senior deputy prosecutor Scott] Peterson said. “He wanted that money to keep quiet.“
A former manager went on to state that there was “no need” for Eastman see anything related to the 787 Dreamliner, finance or other legal documents.
Again, from the Seattle-PI article we see that Eastman contravened all of this.
“Among the leaked data were production rate numbers and information on where Boeing would build its 787, about how much labor was required to build the 787, and about assembly times and sales figures.“
Regardless of the eventual outcome of this trial, it serves to remind employees of the company and those outside of it that usage of proprietary information is tantamount to theft. Otherwise Eastman would never have been put on trial.
But he is on trial and it serves as an ample warning that the reach of the law extends to all and sundry in their pursuit of some personal glory in using proprietary and leaked information. While it’s very easy to argue that it is the responsibility of the company to ensure leaks are plugged, equally, those working on sensitive and highly talked about projects, such as the 787 Dreamliner would do well to remember that by divulging confidential information into the public domain is not without its risks - risks for the sender and risks for the recipient.
One thing that is certain is that such people can be caught out - Eastman on trial is ample proof of that.
Sphere: Related Content
5 Comments Add your own
1. Throw Away The Key! | March 28th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Theft + caught and arrested at desk = Guilty.
2. Jacobin777 | March 28th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Guilty or innocent we’ll let the court decide but I hope this sends a message to others….
3. DonS | March 28th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
There is no question that he crossed the llne by downloading documents which had zip to do with his complaint. And the company is free to do as it pleases with its computers on company property and on company time. But contrary to popular belief, personal use is allowed- and personal computers at home can be used for non company business while using the boeing network access. Sound odd- simply go to Boeing site and look for PRO-10 regarding use of company resources.
The above being said- those who antagonize the company even though they are not employed- can suddenly find their personal emails blocked to and from- and I’m not talking about spam or any emails that violate company policy.
Not only can the company block emails- which again is their right - but they have also put false tracking PFI certificates on home computers- and that is a definite no no - with the result it also blocks access to ones company 401k account!- thats even worse !
When the email blockage was reported to the BOD, they did not deny it- nor did they deny the comments by the Auditchair committee. And that is all now a matter of public record with the SEC .
A little while later- I’ll provide proof of the above
4. DonS | March 28th, 2008 at 9:11 pm
The two links following are just the tip of the issue regarding documented Boeing blocking of communications for other than spam- offensive language- or threats as shown in PR-10
In a thumbnail- one can understand why anyone who trys to deal with Boeing regarding unethical conduct can get frustrated. FWIW- less than a week after April 12, 2007, the then head of the Auditchair committee suddenly retired- Look it up- date is April 17, 2007
http://tinyurl.com/yultht
http://tinyurl.com/2e7qth
DonS
5. Dougloid | April 3rd, 2008 at 2:58 am
I wonder what this douche bag was thinking. Back in the day when I first hired on at Douglas they put us through training in using the computer terminals throughout the plant that were connected to the Unisys 1200 mainframe. A guy stood up and said “Whatever you’re thinking, don’t try it. We audit all communications 100 per cent. That’s our job, that’s all we do here. So forget about it.”
Well, some guys forgot about it. They had a system for managers called PROFS, which was an IBM developed suite of software. You could do a tax return with it. So a couple of managers figured out that you could do this and set up a little side businesss doing tax returns for people using PROFS. They were caught and fired because-what’d I say?-transactions were audited 100 per cent.
I’m quite sure that this is the case with Boeing.
Leave a Comment
Some HTML allowed:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>
Trackback this post | Subscribe to the comments via RSS Feed