Verizon Wireless employess snoop on Obama's phone records

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/...ach/index.html

Obama's cell phone records breached

Story Highlights

* NEW: Internal Verizon e-mail says no e-mail accessible on phone

* Obama spokesman says Verizon Wireless employee accessed billing records

* Spokesman says the phone is old and Obama no longer uses it

* No indication any calls were monitored or voicemails improperly accessed

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Records from a cell phone used by President-elect Obama
were improperly breached, apparently by employees of the cell phone
company, Verizon Wireless said Thursday.

"This week we learned that a number of Verizon Wireless employees have,
without authorization, accessed and viewed President-Elect Barack Obama's
personal cell phone account," Lowell McAdam, Verizon Wireless president and
CEO, said in a statement.

"All employees who have accessed the account -- whether authorized or not
--- have been put on immediate leave, with pay."

The Obama transition team was notified Wednesday by Verizon of the breach,
said team spokesman Robert Gibbs. He said the president-elect no longer
uses the phone.

McAdam said the device on the account was a simple voice flip-phone, not a
BlackBerry or other smartphone designed for e-mail or other data services,
so none of Obama's e-mail could have been accessed.

Verizon Wireless, meanwhile, has launched an internal probe to determine
whether Obama's information was simply shared among employees or whether
"the information of our customer had in any way been compromised outside
our company, and this investigation continues," McAdam said in an internal
company e-mail obtained by CNN.

"Employees with legitimate business needs for access will be returned to
their positions, while employees who have accessed the account improperly
and without legitimate business justification will face appropriate
disciplinary action," McAdam said, "up to and including termination."

The company has alerted "the appropriate federal law enforcement
authorities," McAdam said.

Gibbs said that while the Secret Service has been notified, he is not aware
of any criminal investigation. He said he believes it was billing records
that were accessed.

Gibbs said that anyone viewing the records likely would have been able to
see phone numbers and the frequency of calls Obama made, but that "nobody
was monitoring voicemail or anything like that."