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Former employee plants viruses to revenge sacking

The importance of businesses resetting passwords and access details when employees leave the company has been highlighted by a case in which a former employee managed to sabotage his former employer's computer system.

David Ernest Everett Jr, a 21 year-old man, admitted in court this week to sabotaging his former employer by planting malware designed to crash the company's systems.

The incident happened after the man was fired from Wand Corp, an Eden-Prairie, Minnesota-based company that owns several companies where he worked on the help desk.

Not happy with his dismissal, he accessed the organisation's systems and planted the malware on 1,000 different servers which led to a crash in systems in 25 restaurants, according to the firm's vice president Dave Perrill.

Commenting on the case, online security expert Graham Cluley of Sophos has advised firms to make sure their defences are in place, and ensure "only authorised users can access your sensitive systems".

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