Near North sues ex-employees over computer hacking incident. (Companies).

Broker Near North National Group is suing three former employees for allegedly hacking into Near North's computer system.

The company is suing to recoup $645,000 it spent to investigate and remedy the security breach.

Near North, which earlier this year sued three former employees it claimed violated noncompete agreements, said it filed a civil action under the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act against three former technology employees who allegedly used insider knowledge of the company's computers to hack into the system, read company e-mail and conceal their actions. Kitty Kurth, a spokeswoman for Near North, said the company is hoping to find out what the alleged hackers did with the information and whether the hacking could be connected to events that led to Near North filing the first lawsuit.

The new lawsuit--filed against former employees David K. Cheley, Douglas Sikora and Craig Jongsman-- accuses the three of industrial espionage between August 2001 and April 2002. While employed at Near North, each of the employees worked on "highly confidential and proprietary Near North technology," the company said in a statement.

While no confidential client records were infiltrated, Cheley alone allegedly accessed more than 20,000 Near North e-mails by scanning for messages marked "important, confidential and urgent," Near North said.