Hackers who had access to almost all of Nortel’s computer networks for almost a decade likely hastened the company’s downfall by making it harder to compete for contracts, a technology expert says.

Hackers believed to be based in China downloaded research and development reports, business plans and employee emails from Nortel’s corporate computer network for almost a decade beginning in 2000, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

That information almost certainly wound up in the hands of competitors to the once-mighty telecommunications equipment firm, according to Queen’s University computer science professor David Skillicorn, an expert in cyber crime.

Having access not only to Nortel’s intellectual property, but its detailed business plans as well would have made it possible for competitors to squeeze the company out of the market contract by contract, Skillicorn says.

“You’re not going to win a lot of contract bids in an environment where one of your competitors knows everything that you know, and everything that they know,” said Skillicorn.

At its peak, Nortel was one of the biggest telecommunications equipment firms in the world, and a stock market darling. It also had technology that was second to none, Skillicorn said, meaning their falling sales were likely due to other factors.

“There wasn’t anyone in 2000 who thought that there was something wrong with their technology,” said Skillicorn.

Nortel filed for bankruptcy in 2009. Last year, a consortium of six companies including Apple and Research In Motion bought 6,000 Nortel patents for $4.5-billion (U.S.), marking the effective end of the firm which began in 1882 as the manufacturing arm of what was then called the Bell Telephone Company of Canada.

Three former Nortel executives, including ex-CEO Frank Dunn, are on trial for fraud. Dunn, Michael Gollogly and Douglas Beatty are accused of instructing underlings to improperly use expense reserves to trigger management bonuses.

The trio was fired in 2004.

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