East London | Monday
UNITED States computer giant Microsoft will meet with Nedcor this week to discuss how software programmes to which it holds the copyright were sold with 1 400 Nedcor computers to a local computer firm.
Microsoft’s Mark Reynolds, who has just returned from a trip overseas, said on Friday that he would definitely talk to Nedcor.
An investigation by East London newspaper the Daily Dispatch into the copyright dispute revealed an alleged major breach of bank security and client confidentiality.
Reynolds said his colleagues had assured him that they were satisfied with the processes that Nedcor had followed to dispose of the computers to Broker Ridge CC in 1999.
Broker Ridge’s Andre van Straaten, who bought the computers from Nedcor for R440 000, was last year fined R20 000 by Microsoft for piracy of its software programmes.
After failing to claim from Nedcor R700 000 for damages and to reformat the disks, Van Straaten last week revealed that the computers contained confidential banking information of thousands of Nedcor clients and other bank policy documents.
After a meeting here between Van Straaten, his attorney Henry van Breda, Nedcor company secretary and chief legal adviser Willie Kruger and other Nedcor officials, the banking group said it had ”secured” the data.
Nedcor Johannesburg attorney Jonathan Witts-Hewinson said Nedcor had not paid Van Straaten anything for the information.
Van Straaten was only allowed to say that the matter had been resolved.
However Nedcor sources told the Dispatch that the banking group had in fact made the first of two payments to Van Straaten to buy back the computers with all the confidential bank information they contain.
A second payment will be made after one year.
Asked how Witts-Hewinson’s statement that Nedcor did not pay Van Straaten for any information seemingly differed with the terms of the agreement, Nedcor Bank Technology and Operations general manager Colin Wheater said Nedcor bought back the physical computer hardware at the same price at which Broker Ridge had paid for it.
At the same time Nedcor Bank reimbursed certain expenses which had been incurred by Broker Ridge.
In terms of the agreement, no money was paid for the actual return of client information or Nedcor confidential information.
Nedcor Bank’s first priority is to protect client and bank data and thus deemed it appropriate to take these steps,” he said.
The Dispatch was also told that Nedcor was planning civil action for damages against a third party which the banking group had commissioned to format the computer programmes before they were sold to Van Straaten.
”As is common practice, Nedcor Bank contracted two professional IT companies to reconfigure all the personal computers prior to their disposal. At this stage it would appear that this instruction was not carried out in all instances,” said Wheater. Reynolds said he agreed with Microsoft’s attorneys Spoor & Fischer, who stated that ”if the seller of a computer does not transfer the licence, then the seller is obliged to remove any software programming and provide the buyer with a blank formatted hard disk”.
When asked whether this did not place the responsibility on Nedcor to ensure that the disks had been formatted, regardless of whether a third party had been commissioned by the bank to do so, Reynolds said: ”A number of facts need to be verified.”
But Wheater says Nedcor would not have to pay Microsoft any penalties.
”Microsoft’s action against Van Straaten did not arise as a result of any software supplied by Nedcor Bank to Broker Ridge, it was sourced by him from a third party.” – Sapa