Boeing: What’s worse, bad business or weak technology?

The Boeing data theft guy is a bit of a curiosity to me. Here’s a guy who apparently is so upset with the company and the FAA over parts inspections processes that he’s willing to risk his freedom over it. Or, maybe this is a guy who’s so blinded by righteous indignation that he simply can’t distinguish between right and wrong. Or, is he just an arrogant cad who really thought he’d get away with it? My money is on option No. 2. After all, stories of data theft are big news these days; if the guy was thinking clearly I’m sure he knew he’d be taken way, way, way down if he got caught — and come on, if he was rational he had to have known that as time went on the chances of him getting caught were getting pretty high. We’re not talking about one or two confidential memos here. According to press reports, the official charges claimed the guy downloaded hundreds and thousands of Boeing-related documents. The question is, and one generating lively debate, why the heck didn’t Boeing catch on to this guy over the three years he reportedly was stashing away the corporate jewels? Sounds like he had made his dismay known — why didn’t that trigger more scrutiny? Maybe the data-leakage protection technology wasn’t all that in 2003, or even in 2006, but really, I’m hard pressed to lay this entirely at the fault of human behavior and not consider it as a technology shortcoming, too. How many more examples do we need before companies get serious, real serious about content monitoring and digital rights management? Chief information security officers must wage war! Read the story Share your opinion Take a look at the latest in content monitoring tools