Craig Nazarro of Baker Donelson writes about an insider breach case previously covered on this blog:
Late last month a jury awarded Mount Olympus Mortgage Company (MOMC) more than $25 million for their claims against Guaranteed Rate (Guaranteed), which alleged Guaranteed along with other former employees of MOMC illegally transferred hundreds of loan files from MOMC’s internal systems to Guaranteed. While the award rightfully highlights some questionable hiring and customer portability issues, it’s more notable for showcasing how important it is for a company to maintain control of its data security, both from external threats and employees.
The issue arose when Guaranteed began to solicit two of the country’s top producing mortgage loan officers who were then employees of MOMC, along with other MOMC loan officers, for future employment at Guaranteed. According to the complaint filed in June 2014, Guaranteed hatched a “scheme to defraud MOMC of its confidential and proprietary information, including but not limited to proprietary lead sheets, marketing lists, and MOMC forms; as well as confidential borrower information, including but not limited to tax returns, social security numbers, pay stubs, addresses, names, and other personally identifiable information for the purpose of directing MOMC customers to Guaranteed.” In response to these charges the jury ordered Guaranteed to pay more than $25 million in damages to MOMC.
Read more on Baker Donelson.