Korn/Ferry International Data Breach (2004)

From approximately April 1996 to October 2004, Nosal worked as an executive for Korn/Ferry International (Korn/Ferry), an executive search firm. When Nosal left Korn/Ferry in October 2004, he signed a Separation and Gen- eral Release Agreement and an Independent Contractor Agreement. Pursuant to these contracts, Nosal agreed to serve as an independent contractor for Korn/Ferry and not to com- pete with Korn/Ferry for one year. In return, Korn/Ferry agreed to pay Nosal two lump-sum payments in addition to twelve monthly payments of $25,000. Shortly after leaving his employment, Nosal engaged three Korn/Ferry employees to help him start a competing business. The indictment alleges that these employees obtained trade secrets and other proprietary information by using their user accounts to access the Korn/Ferry computer system. Specifi- cally, the employees transferred to Nosal source lists, names, and contact information from the Searcher database a highly confidential and proprietary database of executives and companies which was considered by Korn/Ferry to be one of the most comprehensive databases of executive can- didates in the world.