Fired IT manager hacks into CEO's presentation, replaces it with porn

Sophos ^ | 6/22/11

[LibWhacker]

Imagine you're giving a presentation to the board of directors at your company. You have your PowerPoint slides all ready, you're projecting onto a 64 inch screen... what could possibly go wrong?

Well, what would you do if your carefully composed presentation was replaced on the big screen by images of a naked woman? My guess is that you wouldn't know where to put your laser pointer..

52-year-old Walter Powell used to be an IT manager at Baltimore Substance Abuse System Inc, until he was fired in 2009. Clearly someone who believed that revenge should be served red hot, Powell used his computer knowledge to hack into his former employer's systems from his home and install keylogging software to steal passwords.

On one occasion, Powell took remote control of his former CEO's PowerPoint presentation to the board of directors, and projected pornographic images on the 64 inch TV.

Press release about Walter Powell's sentencing

According to media reports, Judge M. Brooke Murdock gave Powell a two year suspended sentence, and ordered him to 100 hours of community service and three years' probation.

Cases like this underline the importance of having a proper process in place when staff leave your company. That means changing passwords, and removing access rights when an employee's time at your firm comes to an end.

People do, of course, leave jobs all the time and most of them would never dream of logging back in to their old place of work to cause trouble. But it only takes one disaffected former worker to wreak havoc - so make sure your defences are in place, and that only authorised users can access your sensitive systems.

[LibWhacker]

Good luck ever getting another job, dummy -- in any capacity. Sheesh, talk about unprofessional.

[I still care]

In my experience, what is unsaid is the the tendency of the person to do strange and unprofessional things is probably one of the reasons he got canned in the first place.

“I know we have to let someone go - how about Walter. The guys a little weird, you know”.

[porter_knorr]

Not likely, the reference checks will be answered with “I can only verify the dates of employment and last position held....No, he is not eligible for rehire.”

[South40]

You always lock your IT guy out of your intranet, change all passwords BEFORE you give him a pink slip. This is a good reason why.

[SIDENET]

-ROFL-

[alexander_busek]

This thread is useless without PowerPoint slides of the lady in question.

Regards,

[KoRn]

Doing this to an executive’s material just before a presentation has NEVER, EVER crossed my mind...lol

[dr_lew]

Searched on “how about Walter” ... found your FR post! So no help.

[sten]

ceo’s can also be very unprofessional. for instance:

i’ve seen the ceo gambling... in vegas... with corporate funds

i’ve had the situation where the ceo gets the working product and tries to force a violation of contract in order to get back company shares (9% of the total shares on a $250m valuation)

i’ve had the ceo get the working product, claim there is no moving forward... shutter the company (owing me over $150k)... push the company into bankruptcy... then buy the product out of the bankruptcy and restart a new company with full funding (time span... 3 weeks).

i’ve seen another instance where the ceo bankrupted the company... only after pulling back 2 rounds of paychecks from all employees (direct deposit ‘correctons’ have no time limit on how long after the money was originally deposited). he grabbed 1-2 months of money from all employees (over 500 people) and filed bankruptcy.

all these situations were different companies, in different states or countries. needless to say, i do not hold ceo’s in any special regard... until they’ve earned it.

[Lancey Howard]

“I know we have to let someone go - how about Walter. The guys a little weird, you know”.

"We fixed the glitch."

[PLMerite]

Real revenge is when you hack into his home computer first, so you can put naked pictures of his own wife on the screen.

[Jonty30]

If an employer phones for a recommendation, the fact that you are only willing to confirm employment details is a signal onto itself that the person is probably not a good hire.

[relictele]

Actually most companies’ policies is name, rank and serial number even if the person was the best employee in history.

Lawyers and lawsuits have ensured that honest opinions will never cross the threshold.

[ClearCase_guy]

“My Powerpoint presentation was hacked. I cannot say with certitude that the porn was not mine.”

[abb]

[Hatteras]

That's when it is cool to be an IT geek. Not blessed with that knowledge, when I got hosed and sent packing from a job many moons ago, I managed to get the CEO's address and I filled out a few hardcore porn magazine subscription cards. I wrote his name down but I put his neighbor's address.

But, if you're not into federal crimes, I'm sure there are other ways to seek out a little fun revenge...

[alexander_busek]

I wrote his name down but I put his neighbor's address.

Priceless!

Regards,

[SirFishalot]

Actually most companies’ policies is name, rank and serial number even if the person was the best employee in history.

My company has that exact policy, and in fact goes even further. All Supervisory and Managment personnel have to sign an agreement that they will personally adhere to the same policy if providing an employement reference for any past or present employee ever under their control.

Basically we are only allowed to confirm their name, date of employment, position at termination, and thats it. We are specifically prohibited from providing or confirming any info on pay, termination reasons, performance, training, promotions, accomplishments, coworkers, discipline issues, attendance, or any personal info.

[Truth29]

Two years suspended sentence doesn’t seem much of a penalty. I wonder if there is more to this tale?

[Echo4C]

On the contrary, real revenge is when you put pictures of his wife on the presentation that you’ve taken yourself. You know, pictures that you’ve taken with her.