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Would the kid's knowledge about how to operate the program (in this case, a password) be considered company property? I don't think many jurisdictions would co

Would the kid's knowledge about how to operate the program (in this case, a password) be considered company property? I don't think many jurisdictions would consider an employee's knowledge the property of the company, unless it was a trade secret- and even then, he would only be restricted from telling others under certain circumstances- I don't think he would be required to spend his own time (he was fired) telling the company how to operate the program. Of course, I am not a lawyer...

eggbrain 14y ago
Let's say I'm a system administrator in charge of all my company's servers. I find out I'm about to get fired, and I decide to give myself the only admin privileges on these servers (that control databases, production code, etc). I'm then fired -- does the whole company go under because I can willfully refuse to give up the passwords for the admin accounts? Now granted, the code he refused to give the password to was not at all vital to the company's continued functioning, but I would assume that all work related to the functioning of the company, produced on company time, should be disseminatable. As in, once they fire me, I don't need to tell them how a script works, or what "use the d-factor automization" comment means, but someone should be able to read it, and perhaps with some effort, get an idea of what it does (so that the employee cannot add a keylogger to the system, or some other malevolent purpose).
- Goladus 14y ago
  * I find out I'm about to get fired, and I decide to give myself the only admin privileges on these servers (that control databases, production code, etc). I'm then fired -- does the whole company go under because I can willfully refuse to give up the passwords for the admin accounts?* They will sue you and since it's likely you can be shown to have acted with malicious intent courts won't be sympathetic.
  - ruswick 14y ago
    Is that not what the kid did, just after getting fired?
    - ensignavenger 14y ago
      I did not read the full article- but just did. He did not add the password only after finding out he was being fired (in fact, the way he tells it, he was escorted from the building). I think it would be very difficult to demonstrate malicious intent. But again, I'm not a lawyer :) Or a judge.
- kokey 14y ago
  15 years ago, when I was working as a firewall engineer and penetration tester, I was asked a few times to crack or reset the passwords of systems where ex administrators refused to hand them over. It was usually very easy to do, because the people refusing to hand over the passwords weren't really that competent in the first place, hence why they got fired.

eggbrain 14y ago

Let's say I'm a system administrator in charge of all my company's servers. I find out I'm about to get fired, and I decide to give myself the only admin privileges on these servers (that control databases, production code, etc). I'm then fired -- does the whole company go under because I can willfully refuse to give up the passwords for the admin accounts? Now granted, the code he refused to give the password to was not at all vital to the company's continued functioning, but I would assume that all work related to the functioning of the company, produced on company time, should be disseminatable. As in, once they fire me, I don't need to tell them how a script works, or what "use the d-factor automization" comment means, but someone should be able to read it, and perhaps with some effort, get an idea of what it does (so that the employee cannot add a keylogger to the system, or some other malevolent purpose).

Goladus 14y ago
* I find out I'm about to get fired, and I decide to give myself the only admin privileges on these servers (that control databases, production code, etc). I'm then fired -- does the whole company go under because I can willfully refuse to give up the passwords for the admin accounts?* They will sue you and since it's likely you can be shown to have acted with malicious intent courts won't be sympathetic.
- ruswick 14y ago
  Is that not what the kid did, just after getting fired?
  - ensignavenger 14y ago
    I did not read the full article- but just did. He did not add the password only after finding out he was being fired (in fact, the way he tells it, he was escorted from the building). I think it would be very difficult to demonstrate malicious intent. But again, I'm not a lawyer :) Or a judge.
kokey 14y ago
15 years ago, when I was working as a firewall engineer and penetration tester, I was asked a few times to crack or reset the passwords of systems where ex administrators refused to hand them over. It was usually very easy to do, because the people refusing to hand over the passwords weren't really that competent in the first place, hence why they got fired.