[BreachExchange] Top Executive at Bay Area School Lunch Provider Arrested for Hacking into Competitor’s Website to Access Students Meal Preferences.

[Destry Winant]

https://www.hackread.com/executive-hacked-competitors-website-to-steal-meal-preferences/

Personal rivalry and competitiveness can compel people to get involved
in all sorts of bizarre activities and the latest incident is clear
proof of that. Reportedly, two lunch companies Choicelunch and The
LunchMaster located in Danville and San Carlos, Bay Area were involved
in a fierce broil for gaining the competitive edge in the market.

To surpass the other, Choicelunch’s top executive hacked The
LunchMaster’s website in order to prove their online security was
flawed so that their business gets ruined. Naturally, The LunchMaster
called the cops and the FBI got involved.

The FBI investigated for a whole year; the investigation took a
conclusive turn when in April they arrested the chief financial
officer of Choicelunch, Keith Wesley Cosbey. Cosbey has been charged
with two counts of felony in relation to unlawful computer access,
identity theft and illegally obtaining student data from The
LunchMaster’s website.

The 40-year old Cosbey is suspected to have hacked into The
LunchMaster’s website in order to get information on the food
preferences of youngster across the San Francisco Bay Area. Cosbey is
accused of stealing students names, academic grades, meal preferences,
allergy-related information, and other private details, stated San
Mateo County’s deputy district attorney Vishal Jangla.

A criminal complaint (PDF) has been filed against Cosbey in which the
FBI has revealed that the accused stole data of hundreds of students
and sent the information to the local government department
responsible for supervising school lunch programs to weaken The
LunchMaster’s hold on the school lunch provision market.

However, the strategy backfired because the California Department of
Education immediately informed The LunchMaster about the data
exposure. Cosbey may be facing up to three years in prison if he is
proven guilty.

The LunchMaster tracked the intruder after confirming that its
database was accessed and identified a Danville, California IP
address. The identified location was of Choicelunch headquarters.
Hence, The LunchMaster contacted the FBI and Cosbey got arrested
eventually. He is currently on bail and will be appearing before the
court on May 22.

This, however, is not the first time when someone has been caught
hacking their competitor. In 2015, the cyber security giant Kaspersky
was accused of creating fake malware to sabotage its competitors