BANG and the server's gone: Man gets 8 months for destroying work computers
A peeved employee took revenge on his company by repeatedly spraying Cillit Bang into its servers in a three-year campaign that caused £32,000 of damage. Edward Sobolewski was convicted of criminal damage at Oxford Crown Court on Friday and sentenced to 8 months in prison for the attacks on his employer's computers. He was also …
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Physical access
It's not just servers. In my mispent youth I worked for a well known fast food outlet. One of my fellow employess bragged to me about what he'd done in the cola syrup tank once. I wish I could say I thought it was funny, it wasn't.
Trust no-one.
Re: Physical access
We've all heard those stories. Most of them are bollocks.
Wrong product
Should've used Kitchen Gun™ instead
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-7NDP8V-6A
did the servers not smell funny?
surely using this method would make the servers smell funny. would the liquid not be left behind?
I keep reading it as "Clit Bang", which suggests a different product.
I blame El-Reg
All those articles you've published about the dirt found inside computers. It was only a matter of time before someone tried to do something about it.
I'd always assumed...
...it was pronounced with a hard C. When I discovered that it wasn't it seemed like a missed opportunity.
Hmm, 8 months for that, really?
The guy should have run his boss over in his car - he'd have got a shorter sentence, and a far more satisfactory revenge.
Re: Hmm, 8 months for that, really?
Actually the sentence was going to be longer...
... but the judge was lenient as he said that up until then the defendant had a clean criminal record.
Re: Hmm, 8 months for that, really?
I've just watched a programme about Fred and Rosemary West.
Their first victim (who did get away to tell the police) was kidnapped, tortured and raped. They admitted guilt.
They got fined £25 quid each.
Still, a server's a server, and worth a lot more than life eh?
Re: Hmm, 8 months for that, really?
"They admitted guilt.
They got fined £25 quid each."
From what I'm seeing, it looks like their accuser was pressured into dropping the charges, and that they copped a plea to a lesser charge (indecent assault) - which is far, far different than the court saying, "OK, you admit kidnap, torture, and rape? Fifty bucks and you're gone!"
A travesty and a horrible miscarriage of justice to be sure - but using it as a means to comment on sentencing for vandalism and/or sabotage committed 40 years later, as if the two cases are somehow directly comparable... is... a bit of a reach.
Acid
So a technician opened the server(s) on many occasions, replaced parts, without noticing anything untoward - Unexpected smell ? Caked fluid ? Funny marks ? A certain lack of limescale ?
Re: Acid
Not really, I know of 1 computer services company that just swap the whole box out and don't even change the obvious failing part a very expensive way to fix stuff.
Confusion...
Maybe he just got confused when they told him to redo the company website using Ajax.
32k in damages and he gets a 1k fine and less than a year in jail? In the unlikely event that I ever I find myself in trouble with the law I want that judge.
When I worked for a startup, myself and one of the directors basically changed the motor in the AC in the server room.
we are going to...
cut off your Johnson and Johnsons, Sobolewski !!!
/Coat gotten
Pity
It's a pity that his former employers can't sue the prison where he will be held for the other £31,000 - to come from the costs of feeding and housing him.
What's wrong with this picture?
He only gets 8 months in jail and a 1,000 pound fine when he damaged the systems for 3 years, caused system outages, caused tens of thousands of pounds in repairs? When is the judicial system in the UK going to get in touch with reality? How does 1,000 pounds compensate the victim for there very real losses?
Re: What's wrong with this picture?
They'll actually get the £1000.
If the compensation was set too high he'd simply go bankrupt and his bank and the lawyers on both sides would take most (all?) the money.
In that case the company might well get nothing at all.
The high compensation payouts you hear about are paid by insurance companies or councils, generally on a "shut up and go away" basis rather than letting it go to court. Presumably the lawyers fees must be quite astronomical for this to be cheaper.
Re: What's wrong with this picture?
"How does 1,000 pounds compensate the victim for there very real losses?"
It's unusual to get any damages at all as a result of criminal activity. They should count themselves lucky.
Or do you think that victims of burglaries actually get any of their losses returned by the criminal?
If that trick with the penny is anything to go by, at least all the copper parts would be nice and shiny!
funnily enough, here in the States Cilit Bang! is called Kaboom! - same bottle, different name.
Happy Employees Use WD40
And the servers get faster and better every day.
Added benefit: absolutely no trace of rust.
Eight months in jail will be enough time for this guy to clean up his act.
He wouldn't have had to face the jail time if only he'd made a clean get-away.
Justice...
If there is any, he'll be on bog-cleaning duty all the time he's Cillit Banged up.
Is it me or, does Cillit Bang appear to read "Clit Bang" at a quick glance?
He could have used Kitchen Gun, might have been quicker:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-7NDP8V-6A
Do JML not have a "Server protection kit" for just such a situation?
It's harder than you think...
I work for a company that has a global presence. My colleague and I are ground up support for all ICT for all of Europe. Thats from mice to migrations. The problem I have is, we come along to a lab we've acquired and migrate our systems in place, generally they old regime would be running the entire network from a tower server under a stairwell or something similar. So we have the issue (and for example) in one site we have a 'server room' which is all very nice, black out blinds and aircon with a full rack, which is also the hard copy archive for finance. What boggles my mind is we have staff loyal to the previous employer who have keys to my server room and plenty of ammunition to go pissing around with my kit if they so pleased, times this by the number of sites I look after (12 and counting) and I have a potential nightmare situation......
It could have been worse...
He could have used Kitchen Gun!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-7NDP8V-6A
Cleanliness is close to godliness
This is just an over-reaction to a very conscientious employee putting in extra hours and trying to help keep things clean and shiny.
Inspired choice.
I have to say, although the criminality of his actions tarnished the outcomes of his impeccable taste, his choice of corrosive material was inspired.
Am I the only one reminded of Office Space?
I bet they took his stapler as well!
Bare Grills?
I'm more concerned that they had a grill in the computer room as he was seen "spraying it into the computer grills". The smoke form one of those could do untold damage
Whereas had he sprayed it in to the computer grilles then that would make much more sense.
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