14 DAY TRIAL // Melanie Kroll, an employee of 1-800-Flowers.com, has recently lost her job because it seems that death threatening letters originated from her account. It seems that Melanie, or someone who had access to her account, sent Paul Myers an e-mail message demanding that he quit his job or have his "brains beat in". This is not the first time Myers receives such e-mail messages.
Melanie Kroll has confirmed the fact that the e-mail message was sent from her machine, but she claims to have no knowledge of it. "It seems an e-mail went out from my work account. I apologize and will look into the issue," she says as cited by IDG. According to her, Myers has nothing to be worried about because all the people that could have used her PC to send out the message are "harmless".
An internal investigation was launched by the company that specializes in online floral delivery and Kroll was accused of "misuse of company systems or equipment for personal purposes" and was consequently let go from the position she occupied. Let's hope she doesn't take it too hard, like the network admin from San Francisco.
Professor Paul Myers comments on the incident: "This was not my intent to get somebody fired. She apparently did something stupid which I don't have sympathy for. I would just rather not see people getting fired over an e-mail message."
There is a security issue that arises from the whole incident: if she truly did not send the message, then who did? It would have to have been someone who was in possession of her security credentials and who was able to access her account at will. The incident is living proof that your private, confidential data must not be disclosed, shared or lost. This security breach cost Kroll her job, which is nothing compared to a phishing attack that can leave your bank accounts dry.