PRESS RELEASE
March 28, 2008





Vice President at AMX Corporation Arrested in Email System Breach of Competitor Sapphire Marketing

Paramus, NJ - Sapphire Marketing announced today that a Vice President of one its chief competitors, AMX Corporation, a subsidiary of Duchossois Industries, has been arrested for unlawfully hacking into Sapphire's email system and stealing confidential information.



AMX Vice President, David Goldenberg, has been charged with Unlawful Access of a Computer System/Network-3rd Degree, Unlawful Access of Computer Data/Theft of Data-2nd Degree, and Conducting an Illegal Wiretap-3rd Degree. Goldenberg's arrest follows an investigation by the Bergen County New Jersey Prosecutors Office, Computer Crimes unit, which uncovered the scheme by which Goldenberg had stolen thousands of proprietary and confidential emails through repeated, unauthorized access into Sapphire's secure Email Server.



David Goldenberg joined AMX as Regional Sales Director in June of 2007 and was later promoted to AMX Vice President. Goldenberg unlawfully penetrated and downloaded business intelligence from several Sapphire employees including information about sales proposals, commission statements, pricing, sales reports, personnel records, dealer and consultant and end-user lists among other private and confidential correspondence.



Sapphire Marketing is a leading manufacturers' representative in the Northeast, most notably representing Crestron Electronics of Rockleigh, New Jersey. Crestron is the world's leading manufacturer of advanced control and automation systems and innovating technology and is a major direct competitor of AMX. The stolen property enabled Goldenberg at AMX to unfairly compete with manufacturers such as Crestron represented by Sapphire.



"I am shocked by the corrupt sense of entitlement and indifference towards the privacy rights of Sapphire Marketing's clients and employees", said Marla Suttenberg, owner of Sapphire Marketing. "It is a disgrace and embarrassment to our industry that a competitor would resort to these kinds of tactics to gain an unfair advantage."

More information can soon be found posted on the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office's Press release website:

[Link: bcpo.net].

Wow, this is not good for our industry, and certainly not good for AMX.

all fair in love and war =)

You oughta see some of the stuff I've dredged up from your computer!

You might think differently if it was your system that was hacked and that information was used to steal your business out from under you.

Doing it to someone else doesn't seem so bad, but if someone does it to us we are going to be pretty outraged and howling for blood.

Simon.

I tried that too, but all i cold get was the recorded chatroom conversations from www.bighairyberthas.com


BTW Ed, who is flabby Angie and what is blubber pumping?

Simon.

I'm a ten year veteran control system programmer, spending the majority of my time focusing on AMX systems. I've also done my fair share of Crestron programming, and earned a Level 2 certification in 2003. I vastly prefer programming and especially servicing AMX installs. My personal success and happiness is in many ways dependent on AMX's continued success and growth. I have always felt, personal preference aside, that our industry benefits greatly from the fierce competition between AMX and Crestron. I am saddened by this news and fear the potential repercussions of Mr. Goldenberg's actions.

I think the Clintons' should hire Mr. Goldenberg.

oops, sorry no politics!

barack obama sat at the desk next to him for 20 years and never knew he was even promoted, much less arrested.

Sounds a lot like Glaucon's argument in Book II of Plato's "Republic."

To be serious for a moment. This either says a lot about what someone will do to earn a bonus or how disparate for sales is AMX that it would sanction espionage. I'd wager it's the former but in either case this cannot be good public relations. It suggests, even if it's untrue, that AMX cannot compete on the merits of the products it produces but only by underbidding its competition--and then only by knowing the bid before the fact.

Alan

It is pretty Ironic... A leading technology provider's servers getting hacked into!
I'll bet this could result in a substantial lawsuit against AMX & Mr. G., because it sounds like the investigators will be able to go through the system and see what accounts or projects etc. AMX (Mr. Goldenberg) stole from Crestron, along with any other B.S. that was being done.

Sapphire is a rep firm for Crestron in the Northeast. It was them that got hacked, not Crestron itself.

Oh, sorry... I kind of misunderstood that.
WOW!!! I'll bet the people at Sapphire are a little pissed.



...On second thought, maybe Mr. Greenberg could could hire out his services to some of us CI guys!!! (I could check up on some of my local competitors)!! LOL!

Who said no politics? you lurking?

Prosecutors are coming down harder all the time on this type of offense. This idiot has managed to destroy his personal and professional life, given his company a PR blackeye that won't go away anytime soon and has opened himself and AMX up for a major lawsuit by Sapphire, Crestron and any other manufacturers that Sapphire reps for.

We'll be hearing about this one for awhile.