Comm-Link:Kaizen - Origin Burned

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Hello and welcome to Kaizen. I’m Aaron Schere, with the latest economic news in the Empire and beyond. Let’s get down to business.

'''Past performance is not indicative of future results. Aaron Schere, Kaizen and Farnes Media Partners do not guarantee any specific outcome or profit. Before acting on information in this program, you should strongly consider seeking advice from your own financial or investment adviser.'''

All eyes turn to Terra, as the financial world reacts to news of Origin Jumpworks’ security breach. The details continue to roll in, and the producers and I have made the decision to dedicate the entirety of today’s program to this breaking story. A quick apology to Jerry Yuler from the Corn Exchange on Goss I who was scheduled for today’s show. Hopefully we’ll be able to find a time in the near future to bring him back.

The facts so far are this — eight hours ago a data packet spread rapidly across the Spectrum. Contained within? Detailed blueprints and 3D assembly instructions for an Origin Jumpworks ship prototype, codenamed ‘Goldfinch.’ While the universe is still combing through all the contents, it’s clear from the analysis done so far that years of highly secret research and development have suddenly become public knowledge.

It’s only a few hours till SET market-open and every Origin stockholder’s asking, “Should I sell?” The answer? Maybe.

Reasons to sell: the time and credits Origin spent on this research is now helping their competitors; any advantage they might’ve had upon the eventual release of products based on this research has evaporated overnight; and of course, where there’s one info leak, more may follow. The full effects of this may not be known for weeks, and by that point it may be too late to decide to sell.

Reasons to stay firm: with the positive reviews rolling in, the sales of the latest M50 are expected to be some of Origin’s strongest, the last quarter sales of the 890 series well exceeded projections, and Origin’s managed to make a full recovery after the 300i cooling system recalls earlier this year. Even with the massive revenue losses sure to come in the wake of this event, they may have enough credit flow to weather the storm.

It really comes down to whether you think Origin can –

We’ve just received an official statement from Origin President Jennifer Friskers that we’ll share with you now.

''Jennifer Friskers: This vicious and criminal act comes as a surprise to all of us at Origin Jumpworks and we are currently working with Advocacy agents to track down the source of this breach. All servers have been taken off network and all courier transactions halted while we cooperate fully with the investigation. We will do everything in our power to prevent such an unfortunate event from ever happening again. And while it saddens me that some of our hard earned proprietary design knowledge and technology was shared without our consent, I want to state firmly that Project Goldfinch represented only a small part of our ongoing research and development efforts, and was only a concept vehicle. There are no current or active manufacturing plans directly associated with the stolen files. You can rest assured that Origin Jumpworks has a bright future in store for not only our investors, but for our loyal customers who have come to expect from their ships a quality and elegance that only Origin can deliver. I look forward to sharing more of our plans for the future at a later date, but for now I will continue to provide updates on this current situation as we learn more. I encourage you to direct all concerns or questions to our Public Relations team. Thank you.''

Not a whole lot of new information there. It’ll be interesting to see if the Advocacy will be able to shed any light on the source of the data breach. You have to wonder who would release this data publicly when it almost assuredly would’ve fetched an enormous price on the black-info market. Of course, with other ship manufacturers most certainly taking a closer look at their own security protocols, this may not be a bad time to invest in a network protection firm.

However, specific recommendations will have to wait, as we have to take a quick break. In addition to looking at protection firms, coming up we’ll be talking to a leading infoagent and discussing whether the negative effects of this will bleed into the rest of Terra’s economy.

More Kaizen after the jump.

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