The weekly newsletter for Fed2 by ibgames

EARTHDATE: January 27, 2008

Official News page 8


REAL LIFE NEWS: AN UNFORTUNATE CASE OF SABOTAGE

by Hazed

You read from time to time about disgruntled ex-employees who, after they have been fired from a company, commit sabotage as revenge. That's why those who are being "let go" get escorted off the premises by a security guard before they have a chance to do any damage, although it doesn't stop computer types who have remote access from using backdoors to get back in and mess things up.

But here's a story about a woman who decided to commit the sabotage on her company before she was fired - because she was afraid she was going to lose her job.

Marie Cooley from Jacksonville, Florida saw a job ad in the local paper and thought it was her job that was being advertised. She jumped to the conclusion that it meant she was about to be fired, so with the stroke of a computer key and by pulling some important cables, she deleted $2.5 million's worth of computer files from the architect company where she worked. By deleting about seven years of files she set out to destroy the business.

Unfortunately, the job ad which had set her off was not for her job at all, but for a different position in the company. Her job was completely safe. Until she committed her act of sabotage, that is! She has been arrested and charged with damaging computer equipment - and presumably is no longer working for the company.

The good news in this peculiar little story is that the company was able to recover all the lost files and carry on with business as usual. So Marie's sabotage ended up shooting herself in the foot, as it affected nobody but her.


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