The CERT® Guide to Insider Threats: How to Prevent, Detect, and Respond to Information Technology Crimes (Theft, Sabotage, Fraud)

Chapter 2. Insider IT Sabotage

Insider IT sabotage: insider incidents in which the insider uses information technology (IT) to direct specific harm at an organization or an individual.

Cases of insider IT sabotage include the most technically sophisticated attacks in the CERT insider threat database, and have caused substantial harm to people and organizations. Insider IT sabotage has occurred in almost every critical infrastructure sector, and poses a threat to virtually every organization in government and industry—to any organization reliant on information technology. In one insider IT sabotage case, a former system administrator wiped out 18 months of cancer research, which was never recovered. In another, a company lost $10 million, laid ...