Sophos has confirmed it will cease trading with reseller Quadsys after three of Quadsys's directors and two staff were sentenced for hacking into the email of a rival firm.
Although the five avoided prison, they all admitted one count of securing unauthorised access to computer material under the Computer Misuse Act, resulting in suspended sentences for four of the five.
Quadsys directors Paul Cox, 42, Paul Streeter, 41, and Alistair Barnard, 39, hired a technical engineer from Kidlington-based rival ITBus (ITB), who gave them the username and password for ITB's boss's email. They used this access to look at quotes for contracts and undercut them to win business from their rival's customers.
Sophos is one of the last high-profile companies to announce it would cut ties with the reseller, after Kaspersky became the first to end its agreement when the legal action was first launched back in August 2015.
"We felt that it was inappropriate both to comment or to make a decision on our business dealings with Quadsys until the full facts were known and the case had concluded," said Sophos's UK & Ireland channel director, Jonathan Bartholomew, in a statement emailed to Channel Pro.
"Now that this information is in the public domain and the sentence has been passed we have decided to cease any further dealings with the company and the convicted individuals. We will be happy to talk individually to any Sophos customers who have purchased from Quadsys and are concerned about what this move means for them."
Cox, Streeter and Barnard are all disqualified from holding directorships for 12 months, and each has a 10-month sentence suspended for two years. The trio must perform 150 hours of unpaid community work.
Employee Steve Davis, 35, of Didcot, has a nine-month sentence suspended for two years, and must also perform 150 hours of unpaid work. Employee John Townsend, 37, of Witney, must perform 275 hours of unpaid community work. All five must wear electronic tags until 31 December.
"Today's results follow an extensive and thorough investigation by officers from SEROCU's Cyber Crime Unit," said detective sergeant Rob Bryant of the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit (SEROCU)'s Cyber Crime Unit. "The criminals knew what they were doing was illegal and would damage their competition and I hope that today's sentencing can start to provide some closure to the victim.
"Cyber crime is an emerging challenge both for law enforcement and wider society, which will increasingly dominate policing activity over the coming years."
