{"id":1460,"date":"2020-10-02T09:27:20","date_gmt":"2020-10-02T13:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ielrblog.com\/?p=1460"},"modified":"2020-10-02T09:27:20","modified_gmt":"2020-10-02T13:27:20","slug":"former-it-employee-sentenced-to-prison-for-damaging-companys-computer-network","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ielrblog.com\/index.php\/2020\/10\/02\/former-it-employee-sentenced-to-prison-for-damaging-companys-computer-network\/","title":{"rendered":"Former IT Employee Sentenced to Prison for Damaging Company’s Computer Network"},"content":{"rendered":"

Information security professionals today are awash in overwhelming<\/a>, and constantly replenished surges of information about cyberthreats.\u00a0 Because so much of this cyberthreat intelligence concerns external threats of increasing sophistication and complexity<\/a>, from organized criminal networks to state actors, it can be easy for information security teams to overlook the possibility that disgruntled insiders may pose a risk to their organization\u2019s networks and data.<\/p>\n

Insider attacks, however, are a genuine and persistent dimension of the cyberthreat environment.\u00a0 The Ponemon Institute\u2019s 2020 Cost of Insider Threats Report<\/a> found that in only two years the number of insider threats has increased 47 percent — from 3,200 in 2018 to 4,716 in 2020 \u2013 while the cost of such incidents has increased 31 percent, from $8.76 million in 2018 to $11.45 million in 2020. In addition, careless or negligent employees account for 62 percent of incidents, leading to an average cost of $307,111 per incident, while incidents involving malicious insiders or credential thieves lead to an average cost of $871,686 per incident.<\/p>\n

One recent case provides concrete examples of the damage that a single disaffected employee can cause within an organization. On September 24, the U.S. District Court in Maryland sentenced Shannon\u00a0 Stafford, a former information technology (IT) manager for a global company identified only as \u201cBusiness A,\u201d to a year and a day in federal prison and restitution of $193,258.10 for illegally accessing and damaging Business A\u2019s computer network.<\/p>\n

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Stafford was employed in Business A\u2019s information technology department from 2005 to 2015. As part of his duties, he had access to other employees\u2019 system login credentials \u201cand was authorized to use them in the course of performing his technical support duties.\u201d He also was responsible for disabling network access credentials company users at the end of their employment.<\/p>\n

Although Stafford was promoted in 2014 to a managerial role, as technical site lead for the company\u2019s Washington office, he was demoted in March 2015 to an IT support role because of performance issues in his management position. After his performance issues continued, Stafford was fired on August 6, 2015.<\/p>\n

Beginning on the evening of August 6, Stafford engaged in a series of actions directed at damaging Company A\u2019s network:<\/p>\n