Kate Hoffman: IT Superwoman Saves the Day at Evans

HOUSTON -- It was a hot Texas Saturday just two weekends ago when a computer malfunction at local software developer Evans Business Solutions threatened to create chaos across the company's international network.

"It was around 4 p.m. I was at my son's baseball game and a message came through on my cell phone," explained Hoffman. "The message was urgent and it was from one of our iSeries server." Baseball suddenly became a secondary concern to Hoffman as she realized that a stopped job queue was haulting weekend batch jobs throughout the organization. She quietly slipped out of the stands and made her way across town to the Evans Business Solutions offices.

"In days gone by I would have had to miss Jimmy's games to keep an eye on these weekend jobs," described Hoffman of the relationship between her, her son, and her iSeries. "But last year we began rolling out MessengerConsole—an automating monitoring and notification solution from Bytware—and now things are pretty streamlined. It all runs smoothly."

Hoffman gladly accepts the credit for being a "superwoman" who saved the day. Her bosses have been showering praise upon her for two straights weeks. But she knows that it was really a routine matter of letting MessengerConsole pick up on the problem and take action by alerting her. She was able to go about her weekend and only had to pop back into the office for a brief period to correct the problem.

Police Investigate Evidence Found at Evans Offices

HOUSTON -- Local law enforcement officials are investigating a piece of evidence uncovered earlier this week in the main computer facilities of Evans Business Solutions. The ongoing high-profile theft case involving Evans and Santa Clara-based Extar Systems has received widespread, ongoing news coverage since January of this year.

The discovery of a business card belonging to Extar Systems President Jim Tarskan in Evans's computer room has sent rumors flying and solidified the theory that the theft was an inside job.





A business card belonging to the President of Extar Systems has been found in the Evans Business Solutions computer room.



"We're running into a wall trying to get information to go on," said Sgt. Raymond Edwards. "Obviously no one wants to admit to being the one who dropped the card, but we get the feeling that there are people within the organization who know more about this than they are letting on."

Tracing the card back to an Evans employee would be a huge break in an investigation that has been spinning its wheels for some time now, with little progress.

Officials have been operating on two basic theories: either an insider downloaded the info and passed it on to Extar; or an outsider hacked into the system and stole the data remotely. Until now the camps have been fairly evenly split, but the business card may shift most toward the insider theory.

"There has been a lot of talk about someone inside the company lifting the research data," said Tina Evans, President of Evans Business Solutions. "But I can't believe that anyone here would do that. All of our key staff—the people who have access to this data—have been loyal employees for years. We're one big happy family."

Evans went on to note that there was one programmer, a gentleman named Matt Williams, who they had to let go in December. At least a few within the company believe that Williams took the data with him when he left. The fact that he is now living in California strengthens this belief, but no one has been able to link him to the theft.

Extar Systems representatives were unavailable to comment for this story.

Slash Cleared in Evans Case... For Now Anyway

HOUSTON -- Hacker and suspect in the Evans data theft case, Slash, has been cleared of involvment in the case said Police Sgt. Raymond Edwards in a statement released yesterday.

Slash was taken into custody last month on suspicion of breaking into the Evans Business Solutions computer network to steal research data for Extar Systems. Slash has been linked to a number of break-ins over the past 12 months, but police have thus far been unable to compile enough evidence to bring formal charges against him.

"We know that he has been involved in unauthorized entry attempts against at least half a dozen Texas companies," stressed Edwards, "but this guy is good at covering his tracks. We haven't been able to pull enough pieces together to put him away."

Edwards went on to explain that, although Slash is being released and cleared for the moment, this does not mean that he had no involvement in the Evans case. "In fact," said Edwards, "there are some pretty striking connections in this case. We just don't have enough [proof]."

He then went on to confuse those attending the news conference by exclaiming "I'm gonna get them Duke boys!"

TNT executives quickly issued a statement stressing that Bo and Luke were in no way involved in the data theft case. They refused to comment on Cooter.





Police feel confident that there is a link between Slash and the data theft case, but have been unable to prove a connection.



Sgt Edwards concluded his statement by saying that police will continue their investigation of Slash despite clearing him at this time. "We're pretty darn sure we'll get some dirt on him."

In the meantime police are also turning their attention toward several other suspects and are investigating some new evidence found at the Evans headquarters. With the investigation six months old and little progress to show for the effort, police are coming under increasing pressure from Evans and the community as a whole to solve the case.

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Officers from the Houston police department along with federal agents seized documents this morning from the office of Evans Business Solutions Chief Security Officer, Peter Evans. The seizure comes several weeks after the reported theft of company trade secrets. :: View full story.

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Issue 4

Kate Hoffman: IT Superwoman Saves the Day at Evans
It was a hot Texas Saturday just two weekends ago when a computer malfunction at local software developer Evans Business Solutions threatened to create chaos across the company's international network. :: View the full story.

Police Investigate Evidence Found at Evans Offices
Local law enforcement officials are investigating a piece of evidence uncovered earlier this week in the main computer facilities of Evans Business Solutions that could be a turning point in the Evans/Extar case. :: View the full story.

Slash Cleared in Evans Case... For Now Anyway
Hacker and suspect in the Evans data theft case, Slash, has been cleared of involvment in the case said Police Sgt. Raymond Edwards in a statement released yesterday.
View the full story.