Cyber Theft
John is the owner of a small consulting business.
Last night, some important documents were stolen from John's office.
They were locked up in the safe, and the only way to open the safe was with an 8-digit access code.
Whoever got into the safe must have had that code.
So now, he is trying to figure out who could have gotten it.
Only two people in the company were authorized to have the code.
To improve security, John changed the code every month.
He had the code of course, and so did his assistant, Sylvia.
As far as he knew, nobody else had it, or had ever asked to use it to get something from the safe.
There was no reason for Sylvia to take the documents, so he couldn’t imagine that it was her.
That wouldn't make sense, and she was completely trustworthy.
Besides, she was on a business trip, and wouldn't be back for several more days.
So somebody else must have had the code and stolen the documents.
If so, who was it and how did they get the code?
One possibility is that the code was written down somewhere, maybe in a notebook.
Sylvia was famous for writing things down.
She had a notoriously bad memory, so she kept a lot of notes.
Maybe she wasn't careful, and someone looked through her notes and discovered the code.
But Sylvia wasn’t that careless or irresponsible.
She would never have written the code down on a piece of paper.
So that couldn't be the answer.
Another possibility is that somebody hacked into her computer.
She had probably stored the code somewhere on her computer, and the theft was able to get it from there.
But who could it have been?
Suddenly he realized that there was a new IT guy in the office.
He maintained the company’s computer network and provided technical support for the staff.
Perhaps he was the guilty one.
If anyone could have done it, he certainly had the skills.
He was a security expert, and he had helped Sylvia install something on her computer last week.
To hack into a computer means to use it to gain unauthorized access to data.
If anyone could have done it, he had the necessary skills.
She probably stored the access code somewhere on her computer.
Then, John realized that nobody had doune a proper background check on the guy.
One of the other engineers in the company had recommended him, and he seemed nice.
They had been in a hurry to hire someone for the position, so they didn’t check his background very carefully.
Suddenly he had a bad feeling.
Immediately, he used his smartphone to check the company’s bank accounts.
To his horror, he found that a large amount of money was missing from one of the accounts.
There had been a large withdrawal earlier that morning, more than 75,000 dollars.
He then discovered that the money had been wired to an account in another country.
So, not only did the IT guy get the access code for the safe, but he also got the log-in information for the bank.
This was a disaster.
He suddenly realized that the thief might have gone after more than just the access code.
John immediately called the police and reported the incident.
He also called the bank to see if they could stop the transaction.
Unfortunately, they said it was too late; the transaction had gone through.
Just then, John got an email with the subject line: "from the IT guy."
It showed a smiley face and said, "Thank you for being so stupid."
Don’t waste your time trying to find me.
I’ve left the country and will never return.
Be thankful that I didn’t take everything in the account.
This should be a good lesson for you.
It was signed, "Your IT guy".
He tried to stop the withdrawal of money from the account, but it was too late.
He should have learned to take security seriously, which also means to do background checks.
He was horrified when he found that a large amount of money was missing.
They had been in a hurry to hire someone for the position, so they didn't check his background very carefully.
There was no reason for Sylvia to take the documents, so he couldn't imagine that it was her.
Besides getting the access code, what else was the thief able to do?
Besides getting the access code, he was able to get into the company's bank accounts.