Before You Revenge Delete All Your Firm's Data, You Might Want To Make Sure You're Really Getting Fired
from the just-a-suggestion dept
We've seen a few different stories over the years about fired employees who take revenge on their former employer's computer systems -- usually deleting important data. It's amazing that these people don't expect to get caught (and receive a punishment much worse than losing your job). We even wrote about one case where an employee, who was afraid he was going to get fired, put some code in place to delete data... just in case. He also got caught, though no damage was done to the computer systems. However, down in Florida, details are coming out on an even more ridiculous situation. An employee at an architectural firm saw a help wanted ad in the newspaper that looked similar to her job description, and included her boss's name and phone number. So she drove to the office on Sunday and deleted seven years of architectural drawings and blueprints from the computer system. The only problem? She wasn't about to be fired. The job listing was actually for her boss's wife's company, not her own. Of course, now she has been fired. And, oh yeah, arrested, too.
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Filed Under: deleting data, revenge
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If disguntled employees can destroy you data then your IT department isn't doing their job properly.
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I almost forgot about BOFH. Thanks for the memories.
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And she didn't know what was going on..knew the vibe in the office was just ever so comfy ? yet felt so strongly that doom was about to overtake her that she drove to the office on a Sunday to fook over the data base ?
Good for her ! :-)
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Icing on the cake
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Recovery software is so good now........
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the truth about recovery
the rule of backups is to make them often, but do everything you can to make sure you never need them.
also, reading and decompressing from tape is very slow. you don't notice it so much when you are recovering handfuls of files when they are accidentally deleted or corrupted, but hundreds of gigs could take days to restore.
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why was she reading it
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re: YeaRight
Bulls__t!
Even if she KNEW she was or was NOT going to be fired, and even if her employer did post a wanted add for her job without telling her it is still not her data to destroy.
If they want to fire her that's their choice. If they want to hire a replacement without telling her that's also their choice.
If she decides to take a hissy fit and delete data that is someone else's property and potentially ruin their livelihood then she SHOULD be thrown in jail!
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Surprised!?
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Re: Surprised!?
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Maybe...
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What about this?
This was a long time ago, the new "thing" was a NetWare network.
Anyway, the company used illegal copies of AutoCad (10). They paid for something like 5 and 30 engineers were using it. They also had other applications someone in sales would buy and then distribute to everyone. There was no licensing, I know for a fact.
The company was bought and was being chopped (this is one recession ago, than you GHWB). As the youngest engineer, I was going to go first.
A week before my escort out of the building, I had setup a command to replace the logout with a program that deleted all the illegal copies that *I* was using (that the company supplied me with, mind you). It also deleted all my personal data (not business data). All reports, designs, mechanical drawings, etc. were left intact. I did not report the company for their licensing violations although I thought about it. But it seemed too "sour grapes". And who am I to do IP protection that I don't entirely agree with?
So security escorted me to my desk to pickup my briefcase and logout. And except for engineering documentation, all trace of me and any illegal software I had used left their system as I walked out the front door.
Mostly I was concerned about them having any personal data *and* any trace of the fact that I had used illegal software. I usually don't keep personal data on a business computer or network anyway, but there's always some leak.
Wrong?
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My take on this...
... idiot...
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Looks like they do, just about.
firm's site: http://www.seharchitects.com/
probably owner's wife (interior design): http://vibhahutchins.com/
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1) instead of deleting data, how about stealing it. Make a copy to sell (after you get fired).
2) instead of deleting the data directly, how about infecting the computer system with a data-deleting/corrupting computer virus, preferable one that does not activate immediately, but spends a few days/weeks spreading, before the data-deletion/corruption function activates.
3) a combination of 1 & 2.
4) installing a backdoor, so that after you are fired, you can remotely access the system, delete data, and remove the backdoor. If there's somebody you don't like, you could do it using their account, so they get blamed. Of course, usually, only the IT staff can do this.
5) insert obscure errors into the data files, taking care to "touch" the files so that the dates are not changed. This being an architectural firm, there's plenty of potential to kill and maim innocent victims. Or cause a huge financial loss (see http://failblog.wordpress.com/2008/01/03/fail-bridge/)
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employers
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