The Times Online has more details on the HSBC breach that is causing some international conflict. Earlier, HSBC had reported that an employee had stolen some client data (on fewer than 10 clients) and sold it to French authorities who were seeking to investigate French citizens who were using Swiss banks to avoid paying taxes. A French minister had denied paying for any information, but as I noted earlier, his “neither confirm nor deny” did not exactly clarify whether the French had obtained data from the HSBC employee. Adam Sage now reports that the HSBC employee may not be a thief as much as a whistleblower, depending on your perspective:
[…]
The whistleblower is described as 38-year-old man with dual French and Italian nationality, who has been placed under police protection in southern France. He is said to have hacked into HSBC’s client database after foiling its security system and copying details of the accounts.
Patrick Rizzo, the man’s lawyer, said that the man had been given a false identity and a new passport by the French authorities. Mr Rizzo described the Franco-Italian as an idealist who wanted to use transparency to fight financial crime, and added that he was collaborating with detectives in deciphering the documents.
However, a policeman said that the whistleblower had made himself indispensable by coding the computer files using a system of his own invention.