User is a 4-letter word:  IT Horror stories

Every IT professional likes reading horror stories because they are not only entertaining, they are a great way to learn from the mistakes of others!  Last year one of Computerworld’s top stories was their list of IT horror stories, and they have again repeated it this year with IT horror stories redux.

While many of these happen in many companies, I’ve seen this one several times before, the fire me bomb.  The fire-me bomb happens when a poorly performing malicious computer professional knows that they might be terminated at any time and they plant a time bomb that goes off when their user ID is disabled or removed:

“[They] fired him during a staff meeting, embarrassed him in front of everyone, screamed at him, told him he wasn’t getting his agreed-on severance for cause. . .

But he’d apparently seen the fact of the dismissal coming even if he didn’t foresee the manner, because he had prepared.

Five hours after he left -- two hours after everyone had left for the day -- every server in the server farm decided to rebuild itself, as did the CEO’s, CFO’s, and office manager’s desktops.”

As an Oracle Forensics consultant, I see all sorts of database breaches, some minor, some catastrophic. 

Here are some Oracle related horror stories for your enjoyment.

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