Quelle: CIO, USA

To this day, the CIO of a well-respected research organization in California has no idea how someone hacked into his company's computer systems and used them to store and transmit pirated movies and music. He's not even sure how the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) learned about the crime before he did. What he does know is this: The film industry association tipped off the FBI, which came knocking, and he hasn't seen the compromised hard drives since - nor does he want to. The CIO wants to be finished with the whole business.

"The MPAA must have ways of detecting illegal use," says the CIO, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect the FBI's investigation, which is still active. (Neither the MPAA nor the FBI would comment on the case.) "They contacted us and said our IP address was illegally serving up information, and we said, 'No, that's not possible."

Indeed it was.

Fortunately, for him and his organization though, he is done with the whole business. The hard drives cost only a few hundred dollars to replace, and downtime was minimal. In addition, the MPAA didn't pursue legal action because, he says, his organization was an innocent bystander that cooperated fully with the investigation.

But if the entertainment industry has its way, your company might not be as fortunate. The industry is taking steps to hold your company liable if your systems are used to share pirated materials -which could happen either when a hacker invades and loots your free disk space or when your users are busy swapping copies of the latest song from the Dixie Chicks. The warning shots have already been fired: In April2002, Integrated Information Systems, a high-tech company, paid the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) $1 million in an out-of-court settlement, after the company allegedly permitted its employees to share copyrighted MP3 files on its corporate network. Although this may come off as a scare tactic, there are good reasons to protect your company from becoming the entertainment industry's next poster child for copyright infringement. We'll tell you how seriously to take the warnings and how to protect your company - which is easier to do than you might think.