Dangers of a Wireless World

     It's a regular day at Homeland EMS. In the conference room, the president, treasurer and operations director are meeting about the recent loss of several good nursing home and hospital contracts.

     In the human resources offices, a clerk is processing accounts receivable. From time to time she stops, picks up her BlackBerry and makes an entry. A coworker silently thinks the clerk spends too much time reading e-mails on her wireless device, but doesn't say anything.

     The employee with the BlackBerry decides to work during lunch. She plugs her device into a port in her desktop computer, pulls up a file and sends it, via the BlackBerry, across town to the HR director of the new EMS transfer service that's been picking off Homeland's best clients (and also seems to be hiring away some of its best employees).

     In another office, a male supervisor is berating a female medic over her documentation. He tells her she's within an inch of losing her job, but he can save it if she'll go out with him. He subtly touches her knee. She bends over slightly so the camera hidden in a pen in her pocket will catch his movement.

     Meanwhile, in the locker room, unknown to employees, the company has installed a hidden camera to catch anyone stealing or using drugs. The company has never advised its employees that they're subject to surveillance.

     In the squad bay, two medics are watching a porn movie on a cell phone. They have to be paged three times before acknowledging a call for difficulty breathing. Later, during the call, one of the medics interrupts care three times to read and answer e-mails on his cell phone.

     Electronic devices are pervasive in our lives. We use them at work and at home, for job functions and entertainment. Wireless computer networks, personal digital assistants (PDAs) like the BlackBerry, cellular phones with cameras, Internet and e-mail capabilities, and microcameras and voice recorders that can be concealed in a wide variety of ways all find their way into the workplace.

     Although they may interfere with work, most uses of wireless Internet and cellular devices are benign. However, when they're used with bad motives, such devices can enable an employee to do great damage to a company.

Cyber Spying
     A company's employees and contractual relations are its greatest assets and the essence of its business. Yet these assets can be looted or devalued when an employee is dishonest. An employee with access to proprietary secrets and a will for betrayal can funnel essential information about contracts and employees to a competitor with a few simple strokes of a computer's keyboard or through a peripheral device.

     Employers have varying degrees of protection built into their systems, and while health information is encrypted, other programs on their computers or networks may not be. Even passwords may not prevent disloyal employees from disclosing information to which they have access.

     A recent federal lawsuit illustrates how this can be done. In Shurgard Storage Centers vs. Safeguard Self Storage,1 an employee of one company (Shurgard) was contacted about employment by a rival company (Safeguard). The Shurgard employee apparently became an agent for Safeguard and, over a period of time, systematically provided Safeguard with information about Shurgard's employees, enabling Shurgard to recruit them. Shurgard sued both the renegade employee and Safeguard. A federal court ruled it had a claim against both of them.

     Two federal statutes, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act2 and the Economic Espionage Act of 1996,3 are designed to protect companies from fraudulent acts of an employee or competitor. The Economic Espionage Act deals with trade secrets, and while most EMS companies may not have trade secrets that can be protected, it can be argued that a company's customer lists, contractual agreements and employee information might be protected under this act.