Australian Offboarding Fail: August 21 2020

Sydney Tools sues competitor Total Tools over alleged email hacking

Confirmed it is suing competitor Total Tools over an alleged email hacking.

Source: Sydney Tools sues competitor Total Tools over alleged email hacking | SmartCompany
More reports from: SmartCompany.

According to Sydney Tools, Total Tools hacked into its email system last year to give them insight into its competitor’s plans before they were announced to the market.

Sydney Tools claims that several senior officers and employees at Total Tools took part in the hacking system, including CEO Paul Dumbrell, Chairman Warren Jones, franchisee Anthony Soccio and others.

According to Sydney Tools, Soccio covertly accessed internal Sydney Tools emails using a password he obtained from a former Sydney Tools employee. Sydney Tools alleges that these emails were distributed to others within Total Tools “so the emails could be read, analysed and used to inform Total Tools’ head office’s commercial decisions”.

However, Total Tools CEO Paul Dumbrell denies the claims.

“No email system was hacked. Sydney Tools failed to close or shut down a staff member’s email who had left the company, so there was no hacking as alleged,” Dumbrell told Inside Retail.