After cleaning out his desk, he cleaned out their data, too

A disgruntled former IT worker for Pentastar Aviation in Waterford hacked into the company’s systems and deleted sensitive employee data, causing $34,000 in damages. He’s now facing criminal charges.

The man announced that he was resigning and gave two weeks’ notice to Pentastar on Jan. 15. But two days later, the company told him not to return. The company offered to pay him for the final two weeks if he would sign a separation agreement, but he refused.

Instead, he accessed the company’s systems from his home computer and dumped the data. When Pentastar discovered the hack, the list of suspects was short—the IT worker was one of three people who knew the system’s passwords. The FBI quickly traced the activity to the wireless networks serving the man’s apartment, and charged him with computer intrusion.

Final tip: When releasing any employee who has computer access—particularly disgruntled IT employees—change all the system’s passwords immediately.