A former network engineer for fashion boutique Gucci decided to get back at his ex-employer after being dismissed (over an unrelated matter): A month after he left, Sam Chihlung Yin was accused of tricking the company's IT department into activating a VPN token that he pilfered before leaving, allowing him to log into the corporate network remotely. 

In one instance, Yin allegedly went on a two hour spree where he leveraged his knowledge of the network and admin passwords to cause system mayhem. Several virtual servers were deleted, the company's SAN (Storage Area Network) was shut down, corporate email inboxes were trashed, and other documents and emails permanently deleted.

Gucci claims that the inability to access email resulted in "thousands of dollars" in lost sales by store managers across the country and by the e-commerce sales team. In total, the 50-count indictment charged Yin with causing an estimated $200,000 in damages. 

Manhattan district attorney District Attorney Vance said in a statement: "Computer hacking is not a game. It is a serious threat to corporate security that can have a devastating effect on personal privacy, jobs, and the ability of a business to function at all." 

As reported by Computerworld, Yin could be served with a prison sentence of up to 15 years for one of the Class C felonies alone.

For more on this story:
- check out this article at InformationWeek
- check out this article at Computerworld

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