Fired IT employee offered to unlock data — for $200,000

I think a study I saw recently said about 69% of entities reported data loss or breaches associated with departing employees. Vic Ryckaert reminds us what can happen if you don’t have control of all administrator credentials before you terminate an employee:

Indianapolis-based American College of Education fired its information technology employee last year, according to court documents, but not before an administrative password was changed.

The online college then asked the man to unlock the Google account that stored email and course material for 2,000 students, according to a lawsuit filed by the college. The man said he’d be willing to help — if the college paid him $200,000.