“Mary” works in a small department that shares a confidential and private client list within a larger system of companies using a shared online database.
“Judas” is a client/customer of Mary’s department.
Mary has discovered through the grapevine that Judas was at a professional networking event very recently, claiming as part of his work experience that Mary’s department gave him private and confidential staff access to this client list and online database to allow him to do contract work on said database while at Mary’s department.
That is entirely against the agreement that the system has, and in fact, the system employs its own IT department to handle the database because it is private and confidential information.
Now the larger system is threatening to eject Mary’s entire company from the system, based solely on Judas’ claims of the actions of her department.
Pertinent info:
Neither Mary nor anyone in her department actually KNOWS the required login and passcode information to have admin access to the database itself, let alone to alter it. Therefore Judas’ claims are inaccurate in that aspect, regardless of anything else.
None of Mary’s staff remember Judas acting strangely, or attempting to get that information. However, Mary herself knows that Judas asked on several past occasions if the department would be interested in hiring him to work on the database. Mary always dissuaded him, or referred him to the IT department. (IT does not have any record of Judas contacting them looking for work.)
Everyone in Mary’s staff is well aware that the database and the access information are confidential and private, and have directly stated they did NOT pass on that information to any non-staff person.
Question:
What should Mary do? Does she have any recourse personally? Judas is essentially slandering her department, and her by extension as the person in charge of that department. Of note, Judas didn’t appear (based on what she was told) to have conveyed that information with the *intent *of getting the department in trouble, but as a way to indicate his work experience.
(Obviously, details are obscured/altered.)