An employee of Hertz Inc. harassed customers by accessing their private information in the company database without authorization. Hertz has terminated the employee and is taking steps to prevent future breaches, including increasing database security and employee training. Recommendations include strictly controlling access to customer data, enhancing ethical training for employees, and swiftly addressing any conflicts between customers and employees. Hertz is committed to protecting customer privacy and providing excellent service in line with the company's mission.

1. Hertz Crisis Presentation 1
Team Crisis Project
CIS 300-009
Jie he, Ben Rickard, Quinton Taylor, Ruo-Fan Wang, Justin Wolf

2. Hertz Crisis Presentation 2
Table content
Title Page…………………………………………………………………………….1
Table of Contents……………………………………………………………………2
I. Executive Summary………………………………………………………3
II. Introduction……………………………………………………………....4
III. Statement of Problem…………………………………………………….4
IV. Research and results/findings…………………………………………….4-5
V. Detailed recommendations……………………………………………….5
VI. Conclusion………………………………………………………………..5-6
References…………………………………………………………………………..7
Appendix……………………………………………………………………………8-10

3. Hertz Crisis Presentation 3
Executive Summary
Overview
Hertz Inc. is facing a challenge with protecting our information and the information of our
customers from hackers and causing us to take immediate action to make sure we keep the
perception of Hertz and shareholders in good standings with our consumers. We will take the
necessary measures to discipline those who violated the rules of the company, make sure this
will never happen again with stricter privileges of employees and, continue to be a leading
pioneer in our market of company cyber-security.
Problem
There has been a breach in the customer database of Hertz Inc. This problem is not a usual
occurrence and the faster we address and control the situation the better for you the stockholders
and this company as a whole. Our main objective is to do our duty to the customers, the
shareholders, and the well-being of Hertz as a whole and we want to make sure that Hertz Inc.
Stands by our values of P.R.I.D.E (See Appendix A) (Hertz Inc., 2011).
Solution
We, as Hertz Inc. have been brainstorming multiple ideas to address this important situation that
puts the company and stockholders in jeopardy of a negative backlash. First we have decided to
terminate the employee immediately for his actions towards customers while representing Hertz
Inc., and could possibly hold them to legal action for violating company policy... As a company
we will create a more secure database of the customers information that only a few will have
access to so that something like this doesn’t’t happen again

4. Hertz Crisis Presentation 4
Introduction to Crisis
A single employee has been discovered using confidential customer records, both print and
digital, to harass customers who have given negative comments on third party websites about
their experiences with HERTZ Corporation. The employee was acting on his own accord and not
under the company’s instruction. The employee has been terminated and steps are being taken to
resolve the problems that customers were having and to ensure that this cannot happen again. We
are looking into what other companies who have had similar issues and what they have done to
solve the problem of employees misusing confidential information, such as Goldman Sachs
Group incident in November. We are also researching our own solution that will work best for
our own systems. If anything can be certain from this situation it is that customer information
will be more secure than ever and that customers should not have any misgivings about using
HERTZ Corporation as a vehicle rental service.
Statement of Problem
About a month ago, sometime in early November, one of our employees went searching through
the customer database which had all their personal information such as phone number, email
address, Home address. The employee began to harass our customers by calling their phones and
leaving inappropriate voicemails, slandering their name on social media and blogs which began
to affect their ability for employment. One of the customers the employee harassed has employed
a lawyer and has begun threatening to sue the company for emotional distress and harassment if
we don’t offer a settlement agreement. This situation has yet to reach the media and I believe
that once it does nothing but negative publicity for Hertz and you the stockholders. We have
begun to take action to take care of this situation as fast as possible by terminating the employee
who was responsible and possibly take legal action against them for violating company policy.
We have tried to make sure that this situation doesn’t become the center of media frenzy and are
willing to do the required research so that this problem will never happen again.
Researchand Results Findings
As the leading rental car company in the nation our customer’s safety is the most important thing
to us on and off the road. Recently we have had a security breach compromising our valued
customer’s information. This has been happening frequently throughout the world but seems to
be affecting the U.S. marginally more than any other power countries with regard to technology
and cyber-security (Adkins, 2014). (See Appendix B). Since the outbreak of customer
information through the use of our data bases, Hertz has looked into the best possible ways to
prevent this from happing again by looking at other firms who have been faced with similar
issues. In conclusion with our findings Hertz has decided the best way to solve this issue is to
add more safeguards to our data bases to prevent employees from looking through customers
records without the authorization by their superiors. This system has proven to be very useful to
many other firms in recent years and since the adoption of this safeguard companies have not

5. Hertz Crisis Presentation 5
seen any more issues with employees using customer information for anything other than
intended purposes. Furthermore to increase data security, Hertz has been working with many
software providers to increase the use of safer codes for the software each company provides.
With the increase in safer coding customers information will be much more secure against
possible hacking since this is such a prevalent issue in the US. With these new systems in place
Hertz will be able to provide a safer connection and better protection of sensitive information
with our valued customers. Gaining a customer’s information without authorization and use
those information for other purpose are two issues that we need to deal with and prevent them
from happening. We brainstormed together some recommendations to solve this problem and
make sure an incident such as this doesn’t happen again.
Detailed Recommendations/ Solutions
Here are some detailed recommendation for this case and those potential similar cases. For this
current case, first, the employee who committed the crime should be terminated immediately.
Second, this case will be set to a precedent. The outline of the incident will be sent to our
employees (See Appendix C). Other actions we can take to prevent it from happening again are
to increase the strength of our information database, enhance employee’s ethical awareness, and
solve the conflict between customers and employees immediately. The first one is the
information security. Compare to a case of Everything Everywhere’s (EE) security team, (A
Company Director has been fined after Illegally Accessing of Database.) (2014, November 12)
our case did not do harm on the customers’ assets, but this makes us aware of the potential risk
and gives us the chance to face it right away. The authorization to gain access to it will be strictly
verified and all access should be reported. The second one is the ethical training. Though it is
hard to regulate people’s mind, we can set an ethical course in the training for new employees,
and the precedent will be mentioned. The last one is to deal with any potential conflict
immediately. We do not want to leave any unpleasant emotions to both our employees and our
customers. Undesirable employees will be terminated; but also, unwelcome customers will be
block from the list. This is to protect the relationship between the company and our employees.
We look at this crisis as an opportunity to improve our award winning service. Hertz has an
average of four out of five stars on third party websites and we intend to improve that with the
recommendations that have been mentioned. (Glassdoor, 2014) We find that a four out of five
star rating is impressive for the amount of competition in our product and we are always pushing
to become the best company we can be and affect our customers in a positive way. (Indeed,
2014)
Conclusion
After deliberating about the issue that has been mention HERTZ Company has resolved the issue
by terminating the employee, creating an employee ethical enhancement training program, and
creating a more secure environment for customer information. In the article in USA Today, the
author Foley, stated “Experts say some companies do little to stop such abuses even though they
could lead to identity theft, stalking and other privacy invasions”(Foley,2014). HERTZ is
committed to providing a safe and enjoyable service that customers can depend on. We stand
beside our mission statement and strive to follow through with the promises we made to
ourselves, our stakeholders, and most importantly our customers. Our Mission is to be the lowest

6. Hertz Crisis Presentation 6
cost; highest quality and most customers focused Rental Company in every market we serve,
creating value for our shareholders. We will achieve our Vision and Mission by focusing on, and
balancing, customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, and asset management, with equal
emphasis on efficiency and growth. (Hertz Inc., 2011)

7. Hertz Crisis Presentation 7
References
A Company Director was fined after Illegally Accessing of Database. (2014, November 12).
Retrieved December 2, 2014, from https://infowatch.com/analytics/leaks_monitoring/434
Adkins, H. (2014, July 12). Market failures: Not my problem! Providing incentives for good
behavior. Retrieved November 30, 2014, from http://www.economist.com/news/special-
report/21606422-providing-incentives-good-behaviour-not-my-problem
Foley, R. (2014). Employees snoop on customer data. Retrieved November 17, 2014, from
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/story?id=4335187&page=1
Glassdoor. (2014) Hertz Corporation reviews. Retrieved from http://www.indeed.com/cmp/The-
Hertz-Corporation/reviews
Hertz Inc., Mission Statement. (2011, January 1). Retrieved November 28, 2014, from
https://images.hertz.com/pdfs/VMVWeb.pdf
Indeed. (2014) Hertz customer review. Retrieved
from http://www.glassdoor.com/Reviews/Hertz-Reviews-E4071.htm

8. Hertz Crisis Presentation 8
Appendix A
(P.R.I.D.E)

9. Hertz Crisis Presentation 9
Appendix B
(Amount of Cyber-Attacks per Country)

10. Hertz Crisis Presentation 10
Appendix C
(Employee Outline)
Employee Outline of Breach in Customer Database
Our mission: Be the lowest cost, highest quality, and most customers focused in every
market we serve, creating value for our shareholders. We will achieve our vision and
mission by focusing on, and balancing customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction, asset
management with equal emphasis on efficiency and growth.
Crisis:
• Employee used access to our customer information database to harass customers who
wrote negative reviews on third party websites.
• He did so by contacting them on social media, postage, and by phone.
• The employee was terminated because of his actions.
• Changes will be made to our systems to ensure that this does not happen again.
Thank you for your hard work. Be prepared for the changes in security that will be put in
place in the following months.