Disgruntled workers may attack security

These are tough economic times and many workers, including those in the IT field, are being handed pink slips. As a result, security analysts are advising companies to protect their data and networks against disgruntled employees. Traditionally, some of the biggest threats to corporate data and systems have come from insiders. There is fear that these threats will intensify as companies lay off workers, outsource jobs and consolidate operations.

"When there is uncertainty, it creates stress for employees. It makes the company more vulnerable" to threats, said Shelley Kirkpatrick, director of assessment services at Management Concepts, a Vienna, VA-based management consultancy.

She said employees with access to corporate information, such as customer data or corporate secrets might want to steal or disclose it for financial gain or as a way to get back at their companies. Others may seek to sabotage corporate data and systems by planting a malicious code or logic bombs designed to delete data at a future date on critical systems.

In July, ComputerWorld.com reported that a disgruntled administrator for the city of San Francisco locked access to a critical network by resetting administrative passwords to its switches and routers and then refusing to divulge them to officials for days. In another case, a Unix systems administrator at Medco Health Solutions Inc. who was concerned about being laid off, planted a logic bomb on an internal system. Had it gone off, the bomb would have deleted data on 70 servers.

For more on security breaches from the inside:
- check out this ComputerWorld.com article

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