Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Air Canada Sues Over Misuse Of Employee Password

Posted by michael on from the oh-canada dept.

Anonymous Coward writes "What do you do when you let an employee go? You kill their password and ID, right? Air Canada didn't, and they're now in court because the employee went to a competitor, wrote some cool automated scripts using the ID/password, and grabbed some company data." Interesting story, because Air Canada authorized the employee to access this website and book tickets for himself as part of his severance, but they apparently provide a little more data on that site than what is available to the public.

12 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. If you deal in garbage, you might attract flies. by LostCluster · · Score: 5, Informative

    To airlines, a space-available ticket is something that's being plucked out of the garbage. It represents what they allow most of their employees to do... fly for free when there's an empty seat that's going to be going to be going somewhere. Of course, the critical mistake was that in order for somebody to know if there's going to be space-availalbe, they have to publish on this site how full or not full the plane currently is.

    So there's where the dumb idea play comes in. If they had just let him have some free coach tickets through the customer side the operation then all they'd have to do is give him some limited-use coupon codes. Or they could have given him cash in his severance package. But no, they had had to go with these theoretically near-zero-cost cost tickets... and now look where they are.

  2. What was the TOS? Was there even one? by LostCluster · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We may see an interesting test case for the validity of website terms of serivce here, or maybe even what happens when a website forgets to cover a form of abuse in the TOS.

    Afterall, the site that was involved here was designed for an internal audience, one that'd not dream of feeding info to a competitor.

    But they couldn't simply delete this guy's account because he was entitled to use that site for the next five years to book free air travel as part of his severance package. If he was told not to give the information to his new employer, that's one thing. But if he wasn't, then who can say that infomation given to an ex-employee without any contract still counts as a trade secret?

    So, if there isn't a TOS on the page in question... things could get really interesting.

    1. Re:What was the TOS? Was there even one? by Tirel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Terms of service are displayed so that the provider can discontinue the service to that particular client if he breaks them, it's never used to sue anyone. He didn't seem to hurt their website significantly (after all, it was months before they noticed it?) so there's nothing illegal in that.

      OTOH, if he signed (and not just viewed or clicked on a button), a confidentiality agreement, then he's fucked.

  3. Excellent newspaper by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 5, Funny

    Some of Canada's largest pension funds as well as Toronto conglomerate Onex Corp. and several U.S. vulture funds have been mentioned as possible replacement investors in the airline.

    Finally a newspaper that calls a cat a cat!

    --
    "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
  4. Turnabout... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The funny thing is, Air Canada is one of only a few corporate entities world wide that probably can't afford to sustain litigation against a private citizen =)

    For the benefit of Americans who probably neither know the circumstances (nor really care I'm sure), Air Canada is Canadian's only remaining national airline (i.e. services all parts of the country as opposed to just a few very profitable routes; and does so with legendary rudeness, but that is another story), and it is quite bankrupt. Its chances of survival at this point seem pretty remote.

  5. Re:Calling a spade a "spade" are we? by Zocalo · · Score: 5, Funny

    Actually "vulture capital" is a legitimate term for people that buy failing companies in order to asset strip and so on. Quite literally picking over the bones of the corporate carcass for stray morsels of value. If you are in Utah you can see some circling over Salt Lake City waiting for SCO to finally croak.

    --
    UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
  6. Re:Calling a spade a "spade" are we? by qvanderm · · Score: 5, Informative

    Not a typo. Vulture Funds specialize in 'distressed' investments. A money-burning operation like Air Canada certainly qualifies.

  7. Re:If you deal in garbage, you might attract flies by Beeswarm · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Hey, space-available tickets are a very good deal for the airlines and the employees who work for them. I probably would not be working for an airline if it weren't for the fact I've been to Europe twice, Japan once, and Mexico more times than I can remember in the last four years, all working at a salary barely twice the minimum wage. The Reservation center I work at has an extremely low turnover rate by call center standards, and most of my co-workers travel abroad on a regular basis. And the company gets lots of happy workers just by giving away the seats they can't sell.

  8. The Funny Part by Fortress · · Score: 5, Interesting

    For me, being Canadian, the funniest part of the whole article is how Air Canada's suit is looking for lost profits. Air Canada hasn't made a profit in decades, being a quasi-Crown corporation that can depend on the govt bailing them out when they run out of money.

    Seems to me that Air Canada will have to pay WestJet money for "lost profits," since they spared them from losing money on those flights!

    1. Re:The Funny Part by Snosty · · Score: 5, Insightful

      On a slightly related note I was booking a flight from Vancouver to London last year and found the cheapest flight in the area was from Seattle to London via Vancouver on Air Canada. Booking the direct flight from Vancouver to London on Air Canada was nearly twice as expensive as taking a commuter flight from Seattle to Vancouver and then getting on that same direct flight to London.

      Why not skip the Seattle leg and get on in Vancouver? If you miss the first leg of a flight you are not allowed to make the second leg even when in this case there was an 8 hour layover in Vancouver. As Seattle is only 2.5 hours drive from Vancouver it is conceivable someone could miss the flight from Seattle to Vancouver and still quite easily make the flight from Vancouver to London by catching the train north.

      My point, anyways, was that I was pissed that an airline subsidized by Canadian taxpayers was offering flights to Americans at just over half the price they were offering it to Canadians.

      And before any of you idiots ask the price difference had nothing to do with the exchange rate. ;)

  9. Not how - but what. by Saggi · · Score: 5, Informative

    In Denmark where I live the rules are simple.

    You don't get sued for accessing the website, with or without an illegal id. You get sued if you misuse information you gained in your former employment. It doesn't matter if it is in your contract, the commerce laws in Denmark forbid use of inside knowledge to harm other companies - as it clearly is happening in this case.

    I would guess that Canada have some similar laws.

    So how you obtain the information is irrelevant - even thou this case in interesting from a slash-dot point of view.

    --
    -:) Oh no - not again.
    www.rednebula.com
  10. Hello? Air Canada I.T. Department? by bbq_jedi · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Quote from Wompom website:
    " If AC really knew the truth they would realise that access had been made following the circulation of the PIN on airline chat lines earlier this year. WomPom even used it to verify its functionality."

    http://www.wompom.ca/news/wp2004apr07.htm#1

    Duh...