School Lunch Business Rivalry Leads To Hacking Charges
Image: Getty
Getty
In April, Keith Wesley Cosbey was arrested following a yearlong investigation by the FBI. Cosbey, the CFO of Bay-area school lunch provider Choicelunch, now faces criminal counts of identity theft and accessing a computer without authorization. The charges stem from an alleged hacking incident.
Cosbey purportedly gained access to the web-based administration system belonging to The LunchMaster, one of Choicelunch's competitors. Cosbey allegedly used access to the system to view database records on hundreds of California students -- including their names, meal preferences, allergy information, and academic grades.
In a bizarre twist, prosecutors say that Cosbey then transmitted that information to the California Department of Education. He reportedly had the best of intentions: to inform the department that LunchMaster didn't adequately protect the privacy of students' personal data.
It's kind of the digital equivalent to breaking into a competitor's brick-and-mortar store and rifling through filing cabinets... and not, perhaps, the kind of thing that one goes reporting immediately to the authorities.
Yes, white-hat hackers might call this penetration testing. Typically, though, they're either brought in as security consultants by a business to test security measures. If not, they follow clearly defined processes for testing and disclosure. For a financial officer, on the other hand, it's a little outside the typical job description.
What could possibly motivate a C-level executive in this industry to breach a competitor's systems? Money. School districts in densely-populated areas can have contracts with school lunch provider that are worth seven figures. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that school lunches are a $4 billion business in the U.S.
This was not the first time these two providers quarreled. The spat between Choicelunch and LunchMaster goes back quite a way, with previous incidents involving DMCA takedowns of the LunchMaster website.
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Believe it or not, fighting over school lunches get much more intense once the participants get older. Sometimes, in fact, criminal charges are filed as a result.
In April, Keith Wesley Cosbey was arrested following a yearlong investigation by the FBI. Cosbey, the CFO of Bay-area school lunch provider Choicelunch, now faces criminal counts of identity theft and accessing a computer without authorization. The charges stem from an alleged hacking incident.
Cosbey purportedly gained access to the web-based administration system belonging to The LunchMaster, one of Choicelunch's competitors. Cosbey allegedly used access to the system to view database records on hundreds of California students -- including their names, meal preferences, allergy information, and academic grades.
In a bizarre twist, prosecutors say that Cosbey then transmitted that information to the California Department of Education. He reportedly had the best of intentions: to inform the department that LunchMaster didn't adequately protect the privacy of students' personal data.
It's kind of the digital equivalent to breaking into a competitor's brick-and-mortar store and rifling through filing cabinets... and not, perhaps, the kind of thing that one goes reporting immediately to the authorities.
Yes, white-hat hackers might call this penetration testing. Typically, though, they're either brought in as security consultants by a business to test security measures. If not, they follow clearly defined processes for testing and disclosure. For a financial officer, on the other hand, it's a little outside the typical job description.
What could possibly motivate a C-level executive in this industry to breach a competitor's systems? Money. School districts in densely-populated areas can have contracts with school lunch provider that are worth seven figures. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that school lunches are a $4 billion business in the U.S.
This was not the first time these two providers quarreled. The spat between Choicelunch and LunchMaster goes back quite a way, with previous incidents involving DMCA takedowns of the LunchMaster website.
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