A database with contact information for 170,000 Shell employees was recently e-mailed to seven different non-governmental groups and an anti-Shell Web site.

"It is still unknown what kind of information the database contains, and Shell has demanded an immediate deletion of the database from every recipient," writes Help Net Security's Zeljka Zorz. "When it was sent, it was also accompanied by a letter supposedly signed by over 100 Shell staff."

"One thing that has been [made] public is that the information in the database is six months old, giving rise to the speculation that the signed employees are actually disgruntled ex-employees," Zorz writes.

Click here to read the Help Net Security article.