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November 21, 2008
Obama's Personal Cell Phone Account Info Breached
By Lalit K. Jha

New York
US President-elect Barack Obama's personal cell phone account has been accessed unauthorized by some employees of Verizon Wireless, the company said.

Verizon Wireless, which is the number two cell phone service provider in terms of number of subscribers, has apologized for this breach Thursday and put all those employees who accessed the personal cell phone account of Obama, on immediate leave.

"We apologize to President-elect Obama and will work to keep the trust our customers place in us every day," the company President and CEO Lowell McAdam said in a statement issued late 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," the statement said.

The account, however, has been inactive for several months, Verizon Wireless said adding that the cell phone instrument on the account was a simple voice flip-phone, not a BlackBerry or other smart phone designed for e-mail or other data services.

"All employees who have accessed the account - whether authorized or not - have been put on immediate leave, with pay. As the circumstances of each individual employee's access to the account are determined, the company will take appropriate actions," it said.

"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," Verizon Wireless said.

There was no immediate reaction from the office of the President-elect.

IANS | November 21, 2008   

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