Are there data thief vigilantes at work in Europe? People who steal for what they perceive to be the greater good? A host of institutions have had data stolen from clients, data that has then turned up in the hands of prosecutors in other countries.

The most recent example, an IT employee of HSBC's Swiss private banking unit apparently stole client information on 15,000 Swiss-based accounts. The data ended up in the hands of French authorities. The French Finance Ministry said in December that it had data on the Swiss accounts held by French taxpayers, including names provided by a former HSBC employee, notes Bloomberg. France seems bent on pursuing tax evaders with this data.

Something similar has also happened in Germany, which raises some interesting ethical questions. Is it okay for governments to pay for stolen data in pursuit of tax cheats? It may create incentives for more employees to steal data with hopes of selling it to prosecutors. 

For more:
- here's the Bloomberg article

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