IT Worker Arrested At Health Firm

[Steve]

The FBI has arrested some nutcase (http://www.hardocp.com/news.html?news=MjMxMDgsLCxobmV3cywsLDE=) that installed “destructive computer code” on servers at his job because he feared being laid off. The kicker? He worked for a major manager of prescription benefit plans.

The indictment accuses Lin of planting a "logic bomb" sometime around October 2003 that, if activated successfully, would have deleted "virtually all information" on more than 70 HP-Unix servers at Medco Health Solutions and wreaked havoc on the business and its users.

[Lazybones]

"because he feared being laid off"

Who thinks they could keep their job by blackmailing such a large company? Did he expect to be paid off and disappear?

[Nasty_Savage]

Who does he expect would hire him even after he got laid off if it went off?

[LoneWolf]

If you have mail-order prescriptions as a part of your health plan, chances are even money that Medco is the firm your company's healthcare provider uses, and if you're using them, this could have had a major effect on you.

Between this article and an excerpt from this (http://www.baselinemag.com/article2/0,1540,2067537,00.asp) one (do a text search in your browser for Medco), this makes me really nervous. I just switched to Medco (local prescriptions becoming more expensive in our health plan) and I have real qualms about their IT security policy.

As for the guy who did it, I hope he sees more than a few years in Leavenworth.

[mashie]

"because he feared being laid off"

Who thinks they could keep their job by blackmailing such a large company? Did he expect to be paid off and disappear?
I think they consider it a "thank you" in case they are made redundant and not an attempt to blackmail anyone.

We joked about doomsday scripts every time it was talk about redundancies where I used to work, however I can't imagine how retarded someone must be to actually try and do it though.

[CyberDeus-RagDoll]

I think they consider it a "thank you" in case they are made redundant and not an attempt to blackmail anyone.

We joked about doomsday scripts every time it was talk about redundancies where I used to work, however I can't imagine how retarded someone must be to actually try and do it though.
Things like this are much more common than you think. At one of the places I used to work (think of a computer company from hell) we FREQUENTLY found "kill scripts" as we called them on users computers.

Of course.. 80% of them never would have worked in the first place, but that's irrelevant.