Breach, Threat Management, Data Security, Network Security

Insider sued for hacking Skunkwerks Software clients

A February cyberattack against clients of Vancouver, Canada-based Skunkwerks Software is being ascribed to a former employee, according to The Vancouver Sun.

In a lawsuit filed in B.C. Supreme Court, former employee Chris Hii is being sued with breach of duty, civil conspiracy and civil intimidation. Hii had been hired in 2009 as a business analyst and then rose to vice president of project development at the time he was fired in December 2013.

The claim states that Hii hacked into databases created by Skunkwerks for customers at the University of B.C. and Simon Fraser University to intentionally damage them. He was attempting to influence Skunkwerks' co-founders to cede controlling interest in a spinoff company called iClinic.

Hii wrote code for the databases attacked in the alleged incursion. After being fired from Skunkwerks he worked at iClinic, which provides electronic medical records systems. On the day of the alleged attack, as Skunkwerks' co-founders were negotiating a shareholder dispute, a million records were modified or deleted.

“[Skunkwerks] alleges that the timing of the cyber-attack was deliberate and that the defendant conspired with one of more persons to use the cyber-attack as a pressure tactic to intimidate Craig Martin and Ian Jardine to settle the shareholder dispute,” the claim reads.

In fact, the mediation session ended with the Skunkwerks co-founders ceding their shares in iClinic.

While Skunkwerks stated that repairing damage from the incursion took 171.25 hours, it added that personal information was not compromised.

The RCMP's Integrated Technological Crime Unit is investigating. No charges have yet been filed and Hii has challenged the court's jurisdiction.

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