back to article Dell EMC in bid to clap trade secrets injunction on staff now at Rubrik

Dell EMC has tossed a trade secrets sueball at two ex-sales employees who left for Rubrik, alleging that they solicited other EMC staff to jump ship and approached Dell EMC customers. Rubrik competes with Dell EMC in the data protection business. Complaints were filed against Ryan Baker and Louis Ferreira, who respectively …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Scare tactic to stop the hemorrhage

    key employees have been leaving in droves. This is a tactic to scare people into staying. With reverse sale to VMW on the table and the weight of debt, this is what the company is reduced to

  2. amanfromMars 1 Silver badge

    Both Employers and Employees, and Possible Future Employees Want to Know

    Is that sort of action from Dell EMC tantamount to taking hostages and thinking to use such prisoners as human shields?

    Do Dell EMC offer a juicy job for life package which would render leaving for greener pastures a non-starter no-brainer?

  3. Khaptain Silver badge

    Sales staff accessing sensitive data

    I can't imagine any other department that is more constantly accessing and requesting sensitive data than the sales teams.

    After a few years, usually 3 - 5, they jump ship with up to date or almost up to date figures, stats, client details etc ...

    It always amazes me how they consider themselves over and above other employees in relation to the fact that they consider it normal to constantly hold on to so much data..

    Those higher up on the tree should also have a second look as to why so much information is available to second or third tier staff...

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not the first time

    EMC has gone after former employees who "downloaded confidential information to a USB drive" in the past and got caught, with EMC knowing exactly what they copied.

    Almost like there is something on their laptops that tracks what is copied to USB drives...

  5. Throatwarbler Mangrove Silver badge
    Trollface

    EMC trade secrets

    1) Over promise

    2) Under deliver

    3) Charge usurious license fees to use the hardware

    4) Ramp up support costs as the hardware ages, driving up cost of ownership exponentially

    5) Slander competitors with FUD during sales presentations

    I'm sure I've missed some; help me out here, guys.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: EMC trade secrets

      If that's true, then it's hardly a unique tactic in this industry.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Copying trade secrets, aka pricing, client lists, etc. is theft

    C'mon folks, let's call this what it is, if it's true - employee theft of trade secrets. The burden is on EMC to prove it for sure, but if they have forensic analysis from IT (which they are entitled to b/c they own the laptop, the lists and every file an employee produces/creates on that machine while on the job) that confirms which files were downloaded on what kind of removable media on specific dates...that's a smoking gun right there.

    It looks like these defendants did something dishonest to benefit themselves and their new employer at the expense of the former. That's breaking the rules and probably breaking some kind of law.

    Any other vendor would and should do the same thing to protect their intellectual property.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Copying trade secrets, aka pricing, client lists, etc. is theft

      Ever wonder why corporate computers seem to run so slowly? It takes lots of CPU, memory and network capacity to track and report on every single thing that happens on the machine.

      There is no expectation of privacy on your company-owned device - at least in the US.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    You can bash Dell Technologies all you want, it's popular to hate on #1 and I get it...but if these guys broke the rules, then they should be punished.

    And for what it's worth, no one cares if these guys or any others leave for competitors. The ones worth keeping they keep...otherwise, it's usually the guys with no future path with the company looking to jet and try to find a quick buck elsewhere before they're found out.

  8. Secta_Protecta

    It's pretty standard to have endpoint protection that tracks what gets copied off the device and it'll be in the small print of most IT Usage Policy documents somewhere. If you copy this type of data off your machine before leaving you've got a pretty good idea that you're doing something wrong and you can't complain if you get pulled up. As for contacting ex-clients, that's also in normal contracts but it's harder to prove i.e. "the customer called me on my personal mobile when they heard I was moving on"...

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Stupid move, EMC will bleed them dry with lawyer fees. Simply not worth it! Big picture is that Rubrik needs to start hiring more folks that don't have "EMC" on their resume. "bro-code" is strong with the ex-EMC'ers, very few outsiders have a chance of getting into AM\SE roles there. Risk is you export the EMC mentality to a startup with awesome product.

    1. Secta_Protecta

      "Risk is you export the EMC mentality to a startup with awesome product" Which in this case doesn't apply, at least not in my experience with it...

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