A case study in why credentials are revoked before firings.
Twin brothers wipe 96 gov't databases minutes after being fired
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/drop-database-what-not-to-do-after-losing-an-it-job/
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/drop-database-what-not-to-do-after-losing-an-it-job/
A case study in why credentials are revoked before firings.
13 Comments
jqubed@lemmy.world · 31 pts · 111d
I remember working at a TV station where I got caught in a round of layoffs. Most of us they told in advance, that our last day would be in six weeks, but they laid off an engineer at a smaller station and had him gone immediately. They also deleted his account that day, and that’s when they discovered he was running a lot of station processes through his own account. I think it took the corporate engineers a week to get everything back to a fully operational state.
oeuf@slrpnk.net · 8 pts · 111d
I do something like this at my workplace. I guess it gives me leverage, but the main reason is that my boss drags his heels so much when I try to improve the workflow that it's easier for me to just crack on without his knowledge.
Apparently this is common enough that there is a term for it.
jqubed@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 110d
I think the latter was the main reason. It sounded like his boss really had no idea what was going on or how to make things work. It was only the two of them at that station and they laid off the guy who was actually doing everything.
femtek@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 111d
Yeah, so many git credentials are tied to the account that created them.
Maeve@kbin.earth · 10 pts · 111d
plyth@feddit.org · 4 pts · 111d
But the problem was not the hiring but the firing process.
TachyonTele@piefed.social · 8 pts · 111d
That was a wild read. Glad they got caught, who knows what scheme they had for the guns.
mfed1122@discuss.tchncs.de · 6 pts · 110d
Meanwhile I can't get an interview for jobs paying less than my current salary. What's their secret?
stringere@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 110d
Not being tethered to honesty, probably.
pi3r8@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 110d
He later asked, “How do you clear all event and application logs from Microsoft windows server 2012?” I actually winced when I read this bit.
FiniteBanjo@feddit.online · 2 pts · 110d
I'm confused how you made it past "later asked ChatGPT" without wincing.
NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone · -18 pts · 111d
Good reason to have an AI agent ready to go actually.
ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip · 6 pts · 111d
So they could delete the backups as well? Great idea!
We've definitely never seen that backfire at all in recent history...