14 DAY TRIAL // The reckless actions of a drunk and upset former consultant who worked for Australia's Northern Territory Government ended up costing the taxpayers 1.2 million Australian dollars. The ex-IT staffer deleted more than 10,000 accounts belonging to government employees from critical servers.
David Anthony McIntosh resigned in April 2008 from his position as an IT consultant and apparently planned to follow a career as a chef. However, during the same period, his finacee broke off their engagement. That caused him to move in with a former female co-worker and turn to heavy drinking.
One day, during May 2008, being hit by depression and under the influence of alcohol, McIntosh logged into the systems of his former employer using the password of his ex-workmate and deleted 10,475 user accounts from the Health Department, hospital, prison and Supreme Court servers. He was subsequently arrested by the police and taken to jail.
According to Northern Territory News, McIntosh pleaded guilty in January 2009 to no less than 12 counts of unlawfully accessing and modifying data. The prosecutor, Paul Usher, told the court that 130 experts worked for five days to restore the damage caused by the drunk IT technician and that the whole thing ended up costing the government $1,253,750.
Tom Berkley, McIntosh's attorney, submitted an apology letter sent by the accused to the Territory Government while being imprisoned. In the letter, he motivates his actions by saying that he was attempting to prove that the system was vulnerable. "I'm disgusted with myself for what I did. I did not for a second think I would end up in jail," he also wrote.
The judge is expected to sentence McIntosh next week and the former IT consultant already expressed the desire to start a new life and retrain as a chef after he serves his time. The things that were confiscated during the search of his home, including his computer, had already been forfeited.
Most people would argue that despite his experience in the IT industry (nine years), he would have a hard time getting hired in this field again. However, this doesn't mean that it is impossible. Recently, we reported about a big company hiring a convicted botnet runner as an IT technician because his background had not been properly checked. The interesting fact about this story is that he left such a good impression that, even after finding out about his computer crimes, the management decided to keep him employed, at least until he has to go to prison.