Verizon Wireless placed a handful of employees on paid administrative leave last week because it suspects that they peaked at President-Elect Barack Obama’s cell phone records. Verizon Wireless CEO and president Lowell McAdam told the media: “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 phone in question has been inactive for several months and because it did not have e-mail capabilities, Obama’s correspondences were not in danger of being read. The Verizon employees had access to a limited amount of data such as a record of phone numbers, call length and timestamps.

Verizon representatives declined to say what was accessed, but the employees who accessed the data with a legitimate business need will return to their jobs without punishment. The ones who wanted to look at the data without any business need will be fired or severely punished. The employees could find themselves subject to the penalties prescribed in section 1030 of the U.S. criminal code, where it is written that violators could face a 10-year prison sentence.

These suspicions might lead to the idea that Obama should not use a cell phone and e-mail during his term as President, because it might be easily intercepted.  Another problem concerning internet-theft appeared in this year’s presidential campaign, when Obama and McCain campaign teams were warned that their data was accessed beyond their comprehension. The FBI is still searching the case, believing that the hackers accessed the campaign sites from China. They do not know yet if this is an independent work or the Chinese Government wanted to take advantage of the campaign, by using the information found in future negotiations with the President-Elect.