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    1. Cybersecurity
    2. Information Security

    FBI Looks into whether Ford Worker Stole Computer Programs

    Feb. 25, 2005
    Software from Rockwell Automation believed to have been sold on Ebay illegally

    BELLEVILLE, Mich. -- Federal investigators are looking into whether a Ford Motor Co. worker stole computer programs and sold copies on eBay.

    Court records made public Thursday show that FBI agents raided the hourly employee's Belleville home in December, The Detroit News reported. The agents seized computer equipment, manuals and software - mostly the products of Rockwell Automation Inc.

    Milwaukee-based Rockwell spotted the programs for sale on eBay and began an investigation, according to a 21-page FBI affidavit.

    Between August 2003 and March 2004, the company's loss from sales of software on eBay totaled $1.04 million, the FBI said. When Rockwell alerted the FBI in September of the alleged fraud, it was losing up to $3 million a month from the sale of counterfeit software on eBay.

    Ford spokeswoman Marcy Evans declined comment to The Detroit News. No one has been charged in the investigation.