Police charge nanny agency hacking suspect

In every job that must be done there is an element of fun

A former worker at a nanny agency has been charged with hacking offences.

The unnamed woman allegedly rifled through emails in AOL accounts maintained by her former employer, Nannies Inc., while working for a competitor agency.

Nannies Inc. uses an AOL account to handle registration forms. A marked drop-off in emails sent to that account between January 2007 and March 2007 led to suspicions that something was amiss. Analysis of the connection logs from AOL found several connections from a suspect IP addresses, later traced back to the home of an ex-employee. Although the woman left Nannies Inc. five months previously she was still reading company email, a breach made possible by a failure by the child care agencies to change email passwords following her exit.

The woman was arrested in October following an investigation by officers at the Specialist Computer Crime Unit at Scotland Yard and questioned before being released on police bail. Her computer was taken in for forensic examination.

Last Friday the woman was charged with unauthorised access to a computer (contrary to section one of the Computer Misuse Act 1990). She was bailed to appear at South Westminster (Horseferry Road) Magistrates Court this Friday (15 February).