A Fired Administrator Disrupted the Work of the Company, Wanting to Regain His Position

A fired network administrator for a large financial company in Hawaii deliberately disrupted the company in the hope of regaining his job. He now faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.

The U.S. Department of Justice says Casey Umetsu, 40, worked as a network administrator for an unnamed financial company from 2017 to 2019, after which his employer terminated his contract.

Wanting to regain his former position, Umetsu decided to disrupt the company, for which he used his old credentials, which were not changed after his dismissal. Thus, the former administrator gained access to the site of the former employer and made changes to the configuration, redirecting all traffic and mail to external computers that were in no way connected with the company.

To keep the company out of business longer, Umetsu took a number of additional steps that cut off the company’s IT team from the site’s admin panel and failed to quickly resolve the issue.

The former admin, who has already pleaded guilty, explains that in this way he wanted to force former colleagues to hire him again, but with a higher salary. However, when the affected company realized who was responsible for the incident, the FBI was informed.