Toyota says fired IT contractor hacked into company secrets

Toyota's U.S. manufacturing company has accused a fired computer worker of cracking into its proprietary plans for parts prices and designs, downloading the information and sabotaging Toyota's internal computer software.

The automaker late last week filed a complaint in U.S. District Court in Lexington, Ky., against Ibrahimshah Shahulhameed, a former IT contractor of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc.

As requested by the complaint, Toyota has been granted a restraining order preventing Shahulhameed from disseminating trade secrets or from leaving the United States.

"If this information were disseminated to competitors or otherwise made public, it would be highly damaging to Toyota, and its suppliers, causing immediate and irreparable damage," Toyota charges in its complaint.

Attempts to locate Shahulhameed for comment or obtain the name of an attorney representing him were not immediately successful. The complaint lists a Georgetown, Ky., address for the man.

Shahulhameed worked for GlobalSource IT, Toyota said.