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| Courtesy of pixy.org |
By Carl Weiss
Everyone has heard of the
ghost in the machine, right? You know the one about the person who use to work
at your company who did something that had a major impact on the way things
work? Now everyone has to follow some rule or methodology just to make sure things
go as planned. Their legacy, good or bad permanently changed things forever. Well, today’s blog is a twist on that theme. We
explore the problems that occur as the result of employees being fired or put
out to pasture. Like it or not, having
to deal with the digital footprints left by former staffers can be problematic
to say the least. In the best case
scenario, someone needs to be assigned to pick up where they left off in areas
such as social networking, file management and even online security. In the worst case, former employees have been
known to rifle their employer’s server, plant malware or even lock their former
bosses out of their own systems. Before
you start experiencing digital things that go bump in the night, let’s take a
hard look at a number of cases involving the ghosts of employees past.
Terminated Employee Turns Terminator
In 2010,
a major defense contractor (Lockheed) had its email system crashed for six
hours after one terminated employee sent 60,000 coworkers a personal email
laced with malware. The contractor was then forced to fly in a Microsoft rescue
squad to repair the damage.
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| Courtesy of |
More recently, a
terminated computer technician at a New York publisher (Forbes) caused five
of the publisher’s servers to crash. As
a result all the information that had been stored on the servers was erased and
none of the data was able to be restored. The losses sustained were in excess
of $100,000.
If you think that’s bad, an
engineering firm suffered $10 million in losses when a terminated network
manager unleashed a data bomb in the network he helped create.
Bear in mind that the defense
contractor, the publisher and the engineering firm were all major players that
had in their employ teams of skilled programmers and technicians whose job it
was to safeguard their electronic assets.
If they’re vulnerable to attack by former insiders, what do you think
that says about the cyber security of smaller firms?
Beyond eSabotage – The Attack Becomes Personal
Far from being relegated to eSabotage,
disgruntled former employees have been known to get personal when they are out
for revenge. A blog
by hitc.com called, “10 Ways Fired Employees Got Revenge on their Bosses,”
included the following:
“A former IT manager
received a suspended jail sentence for illegally hacking into his old company’s
IT systems and rigging his former boss’s Powerpoint presentation to display
pornographic photos.”
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“An unhappy ex-employee who
was made redundant, hacked into his bosses email and sent obscene messages to
the senior management team and the company
board.”
“A disgruntled ex-employee
posted a listing for 'free household and garage contents', quoting his
former boss's address. The listing claimed the homeowners were moving to
Puerto Rico and didn't want to keep anything. The ad indicated anyone
could come down and take whatever they want. Investigators say the listing
gave directions to the home, and even provided the garage code.”
“An angry employee who was
given 4 weeks notice used the company credit card to get a year’s supply
of 'male enhancement' pills delivered to a variety of senior staff
around the office.”
Are you starting to detect a
pattern here? Hell hath no fury like an
employee burned. Terminated employees
have been known to do everything from destroying equipment or a company’s
reputation, to taking out their frustration on bosses or coworkers who they
feel were responsible for their downfall.
In today’s wired world, it’s all too easy for anyone to talk trash
online. Worse is when an ex-employee has
uncovered a boss or coworker’s password in order to make it seem as though the
victim is the one who was talking trash.
While terminating an employee
is always an unpleasant task, it is important to remember that not all those
who are fired are going to take the matter lying down. The problem is that while most businesses
have some form of hiring manual, I have yet to see a company create a firing
manual. Aside from brushing off the
psychological shock to the system that being terminated has on most people, the
majority of HR departments in businesses large and small as a rule shrug off creating
procedures that can mitigate the damage likely to be caused by former
employees.
Things to do Before Terminating Someone
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| Courtesy of |
It goes without saying that all
companies need to have a policy manual spelling out employee conduct and also
have a plan in place that deals with both good and bad employee conduct. It not
only need to spell out what the negative behaviors are, but what to do when an
employee is acting in a negative way. I suggest that any time an employee steps
out of line, that an entry of their behavior be recorded in the file and that
they be brought in for review and then be put on probation. This review needs
to spell out the consequences and it is at this point (way before eSabotage can
take place) that safeguards be put in place to protect the company and monitor
the employee further. Have a plan to try and improve the performance. Your Discipline needs to be progressive in
nature. You also have to make sure you are not firing anyone because of age,
sex, race, religion, disability or national origin because doing so can lead to
a very expensive lawsuit. You cannot fire someone for revenge for exposing your
behavior as well. Also employee policies
cannot be cherry picked or selectively enforced in any way, this too can lead
to a law suit. Make sure you have a consensus of all departments and those
depended on that employees work. Understand the full consequences of firing
that person. Once you have covered all your bases from a policy and procedure
aspect, make sure you now look at your IT security and other data vulnerabilities.
Take Care of These Top Five Security Risks
Here are the top 5 items that
need to be addressed before any employee is given his or her walking papers:
1. How much access does the employee have to the
company’s servers and intranet?
2. What kind of company communication is the employee
privy to?
3. Does the employee have a company-issued smartphone,
tablet or laptop?
4. How long will it take you to change or delete all
related company passwords?
5. What email lists, customer lists and company intranets
does the employee have access?
While every company
automatically restricts an ex-employees access to the company’s premises and
bank accounts, you’d be surprised to learn how few conduct an audit of all the
electronic means through which an employee can gain access to potentially
disruptive technology. Don’t find out
the hard way like the folks who manage Chicago O’Hare Airport. In September
2014, more than 2,000 flights were cancelled and pandemonium ensued when an
employee who was facing a transfer, sabotaged the air traffic control center
after posting a suicide note on Facebook.
A quote from Business Insider
read:
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| Courtesy of |
“Authorities say a contract employee started a
fire Friday morning in the basement of a control center in the Chicago suburb
of Aurora and then attempted to commit suicide by slashing his throat. Brian
Howard, 36, of Naperville, was charged with destruction of aircraft or aircraft
facilities, a felony. The FBI said Howard remains hospitalized and no court
date has been scheduled.”
“As of midday Saturday, total Chicago flight
cancelations for the day stood at more than 700 — still a damagingly high number,
but an improvement. Southwest Airlines, the dominant carrier at Midway, had
hoped to resume a full flight schedule Saturday, but had to cancel all flights
between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. CDT.”
“Lines remained long at O'Hare, which is a major
U.S. hub. Many travelers stranded overnight slept on cots provided by the
airport, in scenes reminiscent of winter storm disruptions.”
Neither the FBI nor the TSA had any comment to make
regarding the incident. Republican
Senator Mark Kirk had this to say:
"Chicago O'Hare International Airport
cannot be brought to a screeching halt.
I want to see not only an immediate review by the FAA of the screening
process at the Chicago Air Route Traffic Control Center in Aurora, but also a report
within 30 days outlining changes the FAA will make to prevent any one
individual from having this type of impact on the heart of the United States
economy."
The moral of the story is
that even after spending billions of dollars to keep out terrorists and
hijackers, all it took to shut down one of the world’s busiest airports was a
disgruntled employee with a gas can and a match. With that in mind, if you own or manage a
business that hires and fires, you need to take steps to ensure your firm isn’t
blindsided by the ghosts of employees past.
In
this article I have explored many of the dangers businesses inherited when they
adopted the electronic rich internet connected world we live in today. Since
all companies have some form of electronic infrastructure, all are vulnerable
in some way to electronic Sabotage (eSabotage). This article provides many
examples of how employees who were fired created mass havoc for the companies
they left by sabotaging that companies email systems and servers. Many links
and details are provided for the reader to explore this subject further.
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If you found this article useful please share it with your friends, family and co-works. If you would like to learn more about this subject, visit the notes page on this blog for the BlogTalkRadio show dated 6/29/15. I recommend check out "Cyberstalking for Fun & Profit - Is There a Cyber Stalker in Your Future?" or "Your Online Reputation Can Either Make You or Break You". You can also search for other related articles by typing in “internet security” in the search box in the upper left hand corner of this blog.
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Carl
Weiss is president of Working
the Web to Win, an award-winning digital marketing agency based in
Jacksonville, Florida. You
can listen to Carl live every Tuesday at 4 p.m. Eastern on BlogTalkRadio.
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That is so scary... it's amazing to me how vindictive people can be.
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