WASHINGTON (CNN) – Records from a cell phone used by President-elect Obama were improperly breached, apparently by employees of the cell phone company, Verizon Wireless said 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,” Lowell McAdam, Verizon Wireless president and CEO, said in a statement.
“All employees who have accessed the account — whether authorized or not — have been put on immediate leave, with pay.”
The Obama transition team was notified Wednesday by Verizon of the breach, said team spokesman Robert Gibbs. He said the president-elect no longer uses the phone.
McAdam said the device on the account was a simple voice flip-phone, not a BlackBerry or other smartphone designed for e-mail or other data services, so none of Obama’s e-mail could have been accessed.
Verizon Wireless, meanwhile, has launched an internal probe to determine whether Obama’s information was simply shared among employees or whether “the information of our customer had in any way been compromised outside our company, and this investigation continues,” McAdam said in an internal company e-mail obtained by CNN.
“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,” McAdam said, “up to and including termination.”
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