Foundstone Files Suit Against NTOBJECTives

Foundstone has filed a temporary restraining order and accompanying lawsuit against NTOBJECTives (NTO), claiming that NTO has violated Foundstone's trade secrets and harmed the company's business in the process. NTO CEO J.D. Glaser is a former Foundstone employee. Foundstone is seeking to block the release of NTO's impending Fire and Water toolkit, which is slated for release in early November.

Foundstone's legal complaint states that Fire and Water is substantially similar to Foundstone's FoundScan product. Foundstone alleges that because Fire and Water is being developed in a relatively short time frame, and Glaser is a former Foundstone employee privy to sensitive technology used in FoundScan, that NTO must be using Foundstone trade secrets to facilitate development of the Fire and Water product.

According to Glaser, NTO is a business project that he had started long before joining Foundstone. NTO has become known for developing free security tools for the industry.

Glaser left Founstone earlier this year to work full time at NTO, and several other Foundstone employees opted to leave Foundstone and seek employment with NTO firm. Foundstone alleges that Glaser solicited away Foundstone employee's in violation of agreements Glaser had with the company. Glaser asserts that those former employees left Foundstone under their own accord.

Foundstone CEO Stuart McClure told Windows & .NET Magazine, "To be clear, this lawsuit has little or nothing to do with releasing free security tools to the public but rather highlights our desire to protect the intellectual property and assets Founstone has worked so hard to create. It is Foundstone's company policy not to comment further on pending litigation."

NTO announced its Fire and Water toolkit at the Black Hat security conference this past summer. Glaser said, "Foundstone is suing us over the [Fire and Water] toolkit. But they have no cause to, and they've given no [substantial] evidence [to back up their allegations]. It's a stall tactic to burn our cash." 

A hearing is set for Friday, October 25, at which point the court will make a ruling on the request for a temporary restraining order.