Johnny’s Data Diving Part 3: CWT’s Rape Porn Data Shame - An IT Architect of His Own Downfall #SVAW

This is possibly the most ironic story that I’ll ever tell.

Around six months after I originally released the story, the man involved came to me and asked for a second chance to continue with his life without this article hanging over him. He convinced me that he was extremely remorseful and he also gave me proof that he was committed to doing good works as well as informing me of some of his other good deeds. For this reason, and to give him the benefit of the doubt, I will refer to him as Marcus Baggio throughout the story. But I will also be keeping a close eye on the gentleman in question and I withhold the right to change that decision at a later date if there is any further information which implicates the individual in anything sinister.

It was the early hours of the morning and I was scanning people's computer hard drives. I was flicking through various shared folders looking for an array of information. I had been hunting for hours, promising myself that I’d be allowed to sleep after I had identified one more offender. Just one more click.

If you’re unaware, I have become a pedophile hunter, something that I refer to as being a “Phunter”. I use various legal methods to see inside people’s computers and I look for the darker titles that they’re sharing. If I find anything illegal then I gather evidence of what they’re sharing and I download all of their personal documentation to help in identifying them. When pedophiles share their sick films and images, they are often unwittingly giving people access to much of their personal data like bills, statements and CV’s.

On this occasion, I wasn’t going to find a pedophile. Instead it was the sharing of rape videos that caught my attention. Before I knew it I was browsing the shared folder of a UK based I.P. address. This person was sharing over 1400 different files under the username Marcus. Most of the files were porn torrents and porn movies and the majority of them were films where young white women were having sex with large well endowed black men - perfectly legal pornography. But then there were other titles like “Anal Rape Collection”, “Don’t Touch Me Bastard - Italian Porn (Forced Sex- Rape Fantasy)” and “Rape Russian Girls 2”. So who was this man who’d been downloading and distributing rape porn? There were plenty of clues.

Mission Impossible Irony

Do you think that I would be able to get inside the hard drive of one of the worlds most professional IT Architects? Would I need to be like Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible, slowly descending from the ceiling to avoid the touch sensitive floor alarms, or maybe I would have to copy the smooth cyber crime skills of Jonny Lee Miller in Hackers? What would one see in the inside world of somebody who is a number one expert in data privacy, network infrastructure and online security? I have no training in how to compromise a complicated firewall and I can’t code even in the most basic of modern computer languages, but it turns out you don’t need high tech gizmos, ceiling hung pulley systems, or complex computer coding knowledge. I simply needed the most basic amount of education and a £150 laptop.

You see, the Chief UK IT Architect for CWT, Marcus Baggio, likes to watch porn, a lot of porn. So he opened up his shared folders on his personal PC for the entire world to download his digital porn stash, and in doing so he also shared hundreds of CWT’s employees personal data. The irony is some of the richest and most tangible available today .

I use many different legal methods to research the corrupt and incompetent who are lurking in the sinister corners of the internet. Recently, I have been concentrating on hunting child sex offenders who are roaming the Worldwide Web in search of their sick fix and I report them to their local police forces. Whether they’re located in the UK, USA, or Guadeloupe, I am tracking them down to expose their true identities. Secondly, I’ve been finding private individuals who are accidentally sharing their personal information online and, for no fee, I have been informing them of the sensitive personal data that they’ve been sharing and helping them secure their information. And finally I’ve been tracking companies, very big companies, who are sharing their employees and customers private information with all the dark actors in every shady corner of the internet. And that’s not even mentioning the work that I put into my in depth investigative articles into the establishment elite which I write for Vocal.Media, my normal part-time real world work, or the music that I write, record, produce and release independently. But it’s always a special pleasure for me to expose a powerful and wealthy wrongdoer to my beloved audience.

Let me highlight again that this is all being done completely legally. I am using weaknesses in existing software to find only what is being shared. On this particular occasion Marcus Baggio, Chief UK IT Architect of CWT was using a P2P network to download his porn and share his other files. But like a dotard, the comically inept Marcus must not have checked which folders he was actually sharing with the global public. He was legally sharing his PC’s Downloads file which included around 100 sensitive documents relating to CWT employees alongside over 1000 porn torrents and movies.

What also concerned me - less than the rape videos - was the completely flippant way Marcus Baggio had been storing people's personal information. For a man with so much responsibility, he’s very irresponsible with company data. Hundreds of Email addresses, multiple detailed candidate CV’s, and many internal company documents were left online for any scammer to acquire.

So, I legally downloaded all the documents and began visually scanning every piece of personal data exposed by this leak. I would also be happy to advise all the CWT staff and customers affected on any potential litigation that they could bring forward against CWT, a travel management company with a $1.5 billion annual revenue, for their complete and utter failure to protect their employees personal details.

Marcus Baggio isn’t a beginner in this industry. In fact his CV includes working as the Lead Software Engineer and Project Manager at IBM, he spent time as Technical Architect at RBS just after the 2007 economic collapse, and he was also once Head of Global IT Business Management at MSCI Inc. This is a man who should have known better, but those Russian rape videos must have been too tempting. In 2020, you would believe that a high flying and successful Chief IT Architect of CWT, earning over £200,000 a year, would be able to support eliminating violence against women. But Marcus Baggio sharing rape videos with the world suggests otherwise.

So, how will CWT (formerly known as Carlson Wagonlit Travel before re-branding in 2019) react to this leak? They have tried very hard of late to create the image of inclusivity, diversity, and strong ethical standards. But are CWT just the same old wolves in woolly rags?

The level of detail within the leaked employee data is extraordinarily embarrassing for the travel management firm who represents firms like Accor hotels, as well as having many other major private and government contracts. The applicants who put their CV’s forward to CWT are people who have worked for some of the biggest banks and businesses. They are the cream of the crop, who are screened and vetted heavily before they get a job anywhere near the higher echelons of CWT. Every weakness is noted during the employment process and I’m sure almost all of the candidates would be horrified to learn that those critiques are available for the whole world to see.

There are so many questions that Marcus Baggio and CWT have to answer. How could the Chief IT Architect for such a large company be so foolish with his data? How must his colleagues and CWT employees feel? But more importantly, the question that everybody would want an answer to: How would it feel if you were a female employee who worked at CWT for a man you knew shared rape porn? A man who has a hard drive packed with many examples of female objectification and abuse.

There may be even more to discover about Marcus’s time at CWT and if you read this and realise that you have been affected in some way then please reach out and tell someone. This is the decade where we must stand up against those people who believe sexual violence is in anyway acceptable.

CWT took less than a week to part ways with Marcus Baggio after I had informed them of the data breach. I wasn’t told how that transpired, but I bet it happened quietly and without any blemish on Mr. Baggio's record. And I do feel a very small twinge of sorrow for Mr. Baggio. But then I think of him watching rape porn and my sympathy goes out the window. The IT expert in data security who leaked personal data; the irony is truly delectable.

P.S. Before publishing this story I gave four days for Marcus Baggio to respond to the article. When he did not respond I gave the same right of reply to CWT. It became clear to me from the ensuing legal negotiations with CWT’s Julian Walker and their solicitors at Dechert LLP, that they were not going to take responsibility for their actions. Instead of holding their own employee, Marcus Baggio, accountable for him legally sharing their employees personal data, they tried to make it all about me legally downloading and storing the data. As CWT are now trying to distance themselves from Mr. Baggio and cover-up their illegal sharing of employee data alongside rape porn, I have to act in the public interest. When CWT appointed a solicitor to threaten me with legal action, they did not choose a professional who is an expert in data protection law, but instead they decided on an employment lawyer to protect themselves from staff taking any legal action against them. They were not able to convince me that they would contact all of the people who were affected by the data leak. For which reason I will have to store the data temporarily as a legitimate form of public interest archiving and contact the affected people myself.

CWT did not mention violence against women at all in our discussions, even though pressed on the matter. I am suspicious that there maybe victims of other types of work based sexual harassment and/or violence at CWT and an underlying culture of ignorance at the top levels of the company, but that is for a future investigation. CWT also expected me to do everything they requested as though I was an employee who was being chastised. They completely failed to take ownership of their errors. I really don’t believe CWT when they claim to be a modern ethical employer. They may be trying to position themselves as a bastion of virtue but that’s what all the fraudsters have to do nowadays to remain competitive.

P.P.S. This is a story about a man who appears to have been very naive and silly. This man does not appear to be an actual rapist. That doesn't excuse his behaviour but it must be noted that there is a massive difference between a sexual offender and someone who has a couple of suspect videos among his private porn collection. I don't want to leave you with the idea that he was a twisted pervert but instead he appears to be a man in a position of power who got busted doing something silly. The article is to point out the irony rather than anything more sinister. Everyone makes mistakes, almost everyone deserves a second chance, this man included.