An ex-employee’s cyberrevenge

[harlan4096]

Parting with employees is part of business. But in some cases it can be painful. Aside from fraying the nerves of managers, disgruntled ex-employees can also cause reputational and financial harm while trying to settle the score.

We look at what such resentment can lead to and how to guard against cyberrevenge.

The $200,000 password

One potent example of post-employment trouble comes from the online American College of Education. Management there didn’t hit it off with system administrator Triano Williams, who worked for the company remotely.

In 2016, the employee filed a racial discrimination complaint against the organization. A short while later, he was offered a relocation to Indianapolis to work in the local office. Williams refused; teleworking was one of his key conditions. As a result, he was dismissed. Although he received a severance package, the IT expert was discontent. He concluded that the whole story about relocating had been concocted because of his complaint. To take revenge on the school, he changed its Google account password, depriving former colleagues of access to e-mail and study materials for more than 2,000 students.

Williams argued that the password was automatically saved on his work laptop, which he returned shortly after being fired. However, according to the college, the former administrator wiped the device before returning it.

The institution asked Google to restore access to the account, but it turned out the profile was registered to Williams’ personal account, not the company. The ex-employee’s lawyer hinted that his client might be able to remember the lost password in exchange for $200,000 and a positive recommendation from the company.

Full reading: https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/ex-employ...nge/25393/