Posted by Gareth Cutter on 21st July 2009 to
Backup News A former support administrator to a large IT company has been sentenced to one year in prison after he cost his ex-employers $30,000 in damages by shutting down their servers in revenge.
Lesmany Nunez worked at Quantum Technology Partners in Miami for less than a year and his contract was ended on May 2007. Some three months later he used an existing administrator’s password to breach their security network, shut down most of the company’s servers and delete files that had no form of data backup.
To make matters worse, he changed the administrator passwords so no-one was able to log onto the system to restart the servers for almost a week. Police were eventually able to track activity on Quantum’s computers to Nunez’s home and found additional evidence of the breach inside.
While the damage would have been significant with or without data backup, the ultimate cost of the fiasco would have been significantly reduced if the IT firm had kept copies of all its records in a secure location. The full extent of the loss (which is irreversible) is not known.
This story should demonstrate why businesses need to take Internet security very seriously. If a key member of staff who is responsible for a computer network leaves, it is imperative that all passwords are changed to avoid disasters of a similar nature. Is your security network up to date?
