Chronological Examination of Insider Threat Sabotage: Preliminary Observations

An employee of a telecommunications company, when asked to resign, responded by sabotaging company IT systems, shutting down their telecommunication system and blocking 911 services in four major cities. A disgruntled former employee, upset that he was not hired for a full-time position, remotely accessed SCADA systems for a sewage treatment plant and caused over 200,000 gallons of raw sewage to spill into nearby rivers and businesses. Both of these cases highlight the devastating impact insider sabotage can have on an organization and society in general. Unfortunately, the problem is not infrequent: in a 2011 survey by CyberSecurity Watch, 43% of participating organizations stated that they had experienced at least one insider incident in the past year.