[PEN-L:2671] [Fwd: Workplace sabotage on the rise as job security wanes]

[Michael Perelman <michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
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Sid Shniad wrote:

> THE LOS ANGELES TIMES                   October 31, 1998
>
> SURE, WORKERS GET MAD BUT MORE GET EVEN
>
> Sabotage Is on the Rise As Job Security Wanes
>
>         By Mary Curtius
>
> SAN FRANCISCO -- Call it work rage. As the corporate world
> slims  down, speeds up and grows more uncertain, workers are
> getting mad.  Anger at employers is getting more pervasive,
> security experts say, in a job  market where few people expect to
> finish a career where they began it.
>
> Resentment usually surfaces in the traditional form of griping. But
> increasingly, it is playing itself out in a darker fashion -- sabotage.
>
> Most managers don't want to even talk about their workers who
> deliberately inflict damage on the job. Few companies have worked
> out  programs to anticipate and deal with the problem. But
> employee sabotage  is costing American corporations hundreds of
> millions, if not billions,  dollars every year, and it is being carried
> out by everyone from dock  workers to corporate vice presidents.
>
> Just ask Dennis Dalton, president of security firm Dalton Affiliates
> in  Fremont, Calif.
>
> Hired recently to find out who was carving graffiti into the
> imported  hardwood that lined one of San Francisco's best-known
> downtown  skyscrapers, Dalton set up security cameras in the
> elevators and posted  signs outside warning riders they were being
> monitored.
>
> The security consultant, a veteran of the business, could hardly
> believe  what the videotapes recorded. Vandals repeatedly gouged
> profanity-laden  hate messages into the wood, forcing the office
> tower's owners to spend  hundreds of thousands of dollars replacing
> paneling.
>
> Both the building's owners and Dalton initially believed they were
> looking for outsiders, people who did not actually work in the
> building.
>
> "There were a group of bicycle messenger folks that we strongly
> suspected were the primary people," Dalton recalls. Instead, "we
> caught  office workers using pocket knives and other instruments
> on the wood," he  says. "It ran across the spectrum . . . to our
> chagrin and surprise, up  popped a professional white-collar
> employee." All but two of the many  vandals the cameras recorded,
> he says, were employed by firms whose  offices were in the
> skyscraper.
>
>  Companies Find the Enemy Within
>
> In another instance, Dalton says, owners of a Boston high-rise
> wanted  him to find out who was defacing elevators lined with
> imported marble.
>
> "Again, we put in cameras, this time hidden -- with a court order.
> We  found that the vandals were dock workers, secretarial-
> computer people,  computer workers. And then we caught a vice
> president who wrote graffiti  on the elevator's marble in response to
> the nasty messages from the  employees. At that point, you think
> 'This is getting bizarre."'
>
> The lesson to be learned, Dalton says, is one a lot of managers have
> trouble accepting: Employee sabotage in the workplace is a
> common  occurrence and can range from the most simple acts of
> vandalism to  complex acts of technological revenge.
>
> Employee sabotage, particularly in the Information Age, "is a huge
> issue," says Barbara J. Bashein, professor of information systems at
> California State University at San Marcos.
>
> A specialist in computer systems and controls, Bashein wrote a
> report  this year for the Financial Executives Research Foundation
> on internal  corporation controls over technology. One of the things
> she learned,  Bashein says, "is that a lot of managers believe
> employee sabotage won't  happen to them. Our research showed
> that the reality is that it will happen  to you because it happens to
> most organizations."
>
> It can be as simple as the angry employee who uses his car key to
> scrape paint off a row of cars in the company parking lot, security
> specialist  Dalton says, or as complex as the computer technician
> who plants a virus in  the company's system as her final act before
> taking a new job.
>
> In San Francisco a year ago, a power failure at a key downtown
> substation of the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. plunged one-third of
> the city  into darkness for several hours and hopelessly snarled the
> morning  rush-hour commute. Within hours of the blackout, PG&E
> and local law  enforcement officials were declaring it an act of
> sabotage -- someone had  turned a long row of knobs in the
> substation to cut the power.
>
> At the time, PG&E was struggling with the adjustments caused
> deregulation of utilities in California. Employees who had long
> counted on  job security were suddenly faced with the realities --
> and stresses --  caused by jumping into a competitive market.
>
> >From the beginning, both PG&E al law enforcement officials said
> employees were the primary suspects because access to the
> substation was  restricted and no one had broken in. The FBI says
> is still under  investigation. No arrests have been made.
>
> Often, acts of employee sabotage go unreported and unpunished,
> according to Richard Power, a spokesman for Computer Security
> Institute  in San Francisco. The institute is an association of
> information security  specialists with 5,000 members worldwide,
> Power says.
>
> "It happens far more times than you read about in the newspaper,"
> Power says. "Any computer crime is very rarely reported because
> companies don't want the publicity. They don't want to draw
> attention to  the vulnerability of their networks -- they don't want to
> alarm  stockholders."
>
> At PG&E, officials say they are frustrated by the fact that no one
> has  been arrested in the substation case, but they add that
> employee sabotage is  low on their list of  security concerns.
>
> "The last incident of the type that occurred at the substation
> occurred  15 years ago," says Lyman Shaffer, head of corporate
> security for PG&E.  "We don't regard sabotage as a serious issue at
> our company."
>
> But Power says such crimes are growing more common -- and
> potentially more costly to companies -- as reliance on
> interconnected  computer systems grows.
>
> "The more and more our systems are networked and businesses rely
> on  online communications, the more of a problem sabotage
> becomes," he says.
>
> One of the largest known instances of employee computer sabotage
> in  this country was uncovered just this year, at Omega
> Engineering, a New  Jersey company.
>
> Timothy A. Lloyd is expected to stand trial by the end of this year,
> charged with planting a computer "bomb" that deleted software
> essential to  Omega's operations.
>
> Federal prosecutors have estimated the sabotage cost Omega more
> than  $10 million in sales and contracts. Lloyd had been a
> programmer at the  company who lost his job. He is charged with
> deliberately destroying his  companies computer files.
>
>  Job Insecurity Shakes Workplace
>
> In its 1997-98 Intellectual Property Loss Special Report, the
> American  Society for Industrial Security said 89% of respondents
> to its survey said  their biggest concern about system security was
> retaliation from disgruntled  employees.
>
> Entire security industries are being spawned by the growing fear of
> employee sabotage, says Dalton, the security specialist. But he says
> that he  and other security firms tell corporations that increased
> security alone  cannot prevent such acts.
>
> "I've been in this business for 30 years, and there is far more
> employee  sabotage now than there was even 20 years ago," Dalton
> says. "Regardless  of what you might read in management
> textbooks, there is a correlation  between the level of corporate
> disenchantment between employees and  their bosses and the
> willingness to commit sabotage."
>
> As company mergers and downsizing have become commonplace
> and  job security rare, Dalton says, instances of employee sabotage
> have  multiplied.
>
> "When I do strategic planning for corporations," Dalton says, "one
> of  the chief things we look at is how to develop sound employee
> relationship  programs -- how to announce layoffs, acquisitions or
> mergers, how to tell  people you'll be closing a plant or relocating
> it. We call it asset protection  from a prevention standpoint."



--

Michael Perelman
Economics Department
California State University
michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Chico, CA 95929
530-898-5321
fax 530-898-5901


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Return-Path: <owner-sid-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Delivered-To: michael@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
	Wed, 27 Jan 1999 13:51:06 -0800 (PST)
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 13:24:54 -0800
To: ccpa@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
From: Sid Shniad <shniad@xxxxxx>
Subject: Workplace sabotage on the rise as job security wanes

THE LOS ANGELES TIMES			October 31, 1998

SURE, WORKERS GET MAD BUT MORE GET EVEN

Sabotage Is on the Rise As Job Security Wanes

	By Mary Curtius

SAN FRANCISCO -- Call it work rage. As the corporate world
slims  down, speeds up and grows more uncertain, workers are
getting mad.  Anger at employers is getting more pervasive,
security experts say, in a job  market where few people expect to
finish a career where they began it.

Resentment usually surfaces in the traditional form of griping. But
increasingly, it is playing itself out in a darker fashion -- sabotage.

Most managers don't want to even talk about their workers who
deliberately inflict damage on the job. Few companies have worked
out  programs to anticipate and deal with the problem. But
employee sabotage  is costing American corporations hundreds of
millions, if not billions,  dollars every year, and it is being carried
out by everyone from dock  workers to corporate vice presidents.

Just ask Dennis Dalton, president of security firm Dalton Affiliates
in  Fremont, Calif.

Hired recently to find out who was carving graffiti into the
imported  hardwood that lined one of San Francisco's best-known
downtown  skyscrapers, Dalton set up security cameras in the
elevators and posted  signs outside warning riders they were being
monitored.

The security consultant, a veteran of the business, could hardly
believe  what the videotapes recorded. Vandals repeatedly gouged
profanity-laden  hate messages into the wood, forcing the office
tower's owners to spend  hundreds of thousands of dollars replacing
paneling.

Both the building's owners and Dalton initially believed they were
looking for outsiders, people who did not actually work in the
building.

"There were a group of bicycle messenger folks that we strongly
suspected were the primary people," Dalton recalls. Instead, "we
caught  office workers using pocket knives and other instruments
on the wood," he  says. "It ran across the spectrum . . . to our
chagrin and surprise, up  popped a professional white-collar
employee." All but two of the many  vandals the cameras recorded,
he says, were employed by firms whose  offices were in the
skyscraper.

 Companies Find the Enemy Within



In another instance, Dalton says, owners of a Boston high-rise
wanted  him to find out who was defacing elevators lined with
imported marble.

"Again, we put in cameras, this time hidden -- with a court order.
We  found that the vandals were dock workers, secretarial-
computer people,  computer workers. And then we caught a vice
president who wrote graffiti  on the elevator's marble in response to
the nasty messages from the  employees. At that point, you think
'This is getting bizarre."'

The lesson to be learned, Dalton says, is one a lot of managers have
trouble accepting: Employee sabotage in the workplace is a
common  occurrence and can range from the most simple acts of
vandalism to  complex acts of technological revenge.

Employee sabotage, particularly in the Information Age, "is a huge
issue," says Barbara J. Bashein, professor of information systems at
California State University at San Marcos.

A specialist in computer systems and controls, Bashein wrote a
report  this year for the Financial Executives Research Foundation
on internal  corporation controls over technology. One of the things
she learned,  Bashein says, "is that a lot of managers believe
employee sabotage won't  happen to them. Our research showed
that the reality is that it will happen  to you because it happens to
most organizations."

It can be as simple as the angry employee who uses his car key to
scrape paint off a row of cars in the company parking lot, security
specialist  Dalton says, or as complex as the computer technician
who plants a virus in  the company's system as her final act before
taking a new job.

In San Francisco a year ago, a power failure at a key downtown
substation of the Pacific Gas & Electric Co. plunged one-third of
the city  into darkness for several hours and hopelessly snarled the
morning  rush-hour commute. Within hours of the blackout, PG&E
and local law  enforcement officials were declaring it an act of
sabotage -- someone had  turned a long row of knobs in the
substation to cut the power.

At the time, PG&E was struggling with the adjustments caused
deregulation of utilities in California. Employees who had long
counted on  job security were suddenly faced with the realities --
and stresses --  caused by jumping into a competitive market.

>From the beginning, both PG&E al law enforcement officials said
employees were the primary suspects because access to the
substation was  restricted and no one had broken in. The FBI says
is still under  investigation. No arrests have been made.

Often, acts of employee sabotage go unreported and unpunished,
according to Richard Power, a spokesman for Computer Security
Institute  in San Francisco. The institute is an association of
information security  specialists with 5,000 members worldwide,
Power says.

"It happens far more times than you read about in the newspaper,"
Power says. "Any computer crime is very rarely reported because
companies don't want the publicity. They don't want to draw
attention to  the vulnerability of their networks -- they don't want to
alarm  stockholders."

At PG&E, officials say they are frustrated by the fact that no one
has  been arrested in the substation case, but they add that
employee sabotage is  low on their list of  security concerns.

"The last incident of the type that occurred at the substation
occurred  15 years ago," says Lyman Shaffer, head of corporate
security for PG&E.  "We don't regard sabotage as a serious issue at
our company."

But Power says such crimes are growing more common -- and
potentially more costly to companies -- as reliance on
interconnected  computer systems grows.

"The more and more our systems are networked and businesses rely
on  online communications, the more of a problem sabotage
becomes," he says.

One of the largest known instances of employee computer sabotage
in  this country was uncovered just this year, at Omega
Engineering, a New  Jersey company.

Timothy A. Lloyd is expected to stand trial by the end of this year,
charged with planting a computer "bomb" that deleted software
essential to  Omega's operations.

Federal prosecutors have estimated the sabotage cost Omega more
than  $10 million in sales and contracts. Lloyd had been a
programmer at the  company who lost his job. He is charged with
deliberately destroying his  companies computer files.

 Job Insecurity Shakes Workplace



In its 1997-98 Intellectual Property Loss Special Report, the
American  Society for Industrial Security said 89% of respondents
to its survey said  their biggest concern about system security was
retaliation from disgruntled  employees.

Entire security industries are being spawned by the growing fear of
employee sabotage, says Dalton, the security specialist. But he says
that he  and other security firms tell corporations that increased
security alone  cannot prevent such acts.

"I've been in this business for 30 years, and there is far more
employee  sabotage now than there was even 20 years ago," Dalton
says. "Regardless  of what you might read in management
textbooks, there is a correlation  between the level of corporate
disenchantment between employees and  their bosses and the
willingness to commit sabotage."

As company mergers and downsizing have become commonplace
and  job security rare, Dalton says, instances of employee sabotage
have  multiplied.

"When I do strategic planning for corporations," Dalton says, "one
of  the chief things we look at is how to develop sound employee
relationship  programs -- how to announce layoffs, acquisitions or
mergers, how to tell  people you'll be closing a plant or relocating
it. We call it asset protection  from a prevention standpoint."



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