An IT worker sacked for lying on his CV hacked into his
former company's systems and removed vital information, New
Scotland Yard has revealed.
Julius Oladiran, 46, of South Norwood, London, lost his database
developer job after employers realised he was not qualified and had
lied about having a BSc, an MSc, and working for the Ministry of
Defence and the Labour Party.
He installed spyware on the company's network to find out what
former colleagues were saying about him. His departure meant that a
project had to be cancelled, which led to job losses at the small
company.
Oladiran was discovered when a company worker noticed his mouse
moving around the screen apparently by itself.
The hacker was sentenced to two months in jail on Wednesday in
Southwark Crown Court, after pleading guilty to obtaining
employment by false representation and computer hacking. He was
also ordered to pay the company £3,200 in compensation.
DC Mark Roberts, from the Economic and Specialist Crime Unit at
the Metropolitan Police, said, "This man was clearly dishonest and
the sentence reflects this.
"He used his knowledge of computers to hack into the system even
after he had left the company."
IT security companies have warned businesses to take measures
against aggrieved former staff.Graham Cluley, senior technology
consultant at
security firm Sophos,
said, "Every so often there is a story like this - where a member
of IT staff feels that they have been unfairly dismissed, but finds
it all too easy to
break back into the network and cause havoc."
Stuart Hodkinson, general manager of Courion Corporation, added,
"Businesses really need to have technology in place that allows
them to keep tabs on who has access to IT systems. Until the issue
of access assurance is prioritised, we'll continue to see such
breaches in organisations."