A Brooklyn woman named Juliana Barile admitted to deleting 20 GB of data from the credit union where she worked after she was fired.
The unnamed credit union fired Barile from his part-time position on May 19, 2021. Two days later, she accessed the union’s network file server and deleted 21.3 GB of data.
The data includes more than 20,000 files and 3,500 directories.She also deleted files related to mortgage applications and anti-ransomware protection software Ministry of Justice (DOJ) wrote in a press release.
After deleting the file, she sent a text message to her friend, confessing her crime.
“I deleted the network files they shared,” she texted.
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The US Department of Justice stated that the credit union spent nearly $10,000 to repair the damage caused by the deletion.
“Ms. Barile may think that she retaliated against her employer by deleting files. However, she did as much harm to the customer. Her small retaliation not only brought a huge security risk to the bank, but the customer also relied on paperwork and actions. Their approval to pay for the house was put aside.” FBI Assistant Supervisor Michael J. Driscoll said.
Driscoll continued: “Internal threats cause as much damage as external criminals, or more.” “Banks and customers are now facing a huge problem of solving an employee’s selfish behavior.”
In court, Barile pleaded guilty to computer intrusion and destruction of computer system data. She now faces up to 10 years in prison and fines.
Barile is not the first employee to face charges for allegedly deleting files on departure.
According to Wired, in 2011, IT administrator Michael Thomas allegedly deleted 615 backup files and six pages from ClickMotive’s internal reference website, which provides online services for car dealers. Allegedly, Thomas also turned off the automatic backup settings for many parts of the company’s network, and changed the e-mail and network settings to make it more difficult for his former colleagues to work remotely.
Thomas subsequently resigned from the company. He left a note to his former employer, offering his services as an independent IT consultant. His employer later accused him of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) of 1986 designed to punish malicious hacking.
Thomas’ defense attorney argued that he neither hacked into the system nor “malicious.” His lawyer said that all the data he deleted was stored elsewhere on the company’s computer network.
On December 11, 2017, the Federal Court of Appeals ruled Thomas guilty. ClickMotive said it spent $130,000 to solve the problem he allegedly caused.
Weekly newspaper Contacted the Ministry of Justice for comments.
