Disgruntled employees are proven to be management headache. While most won’t probably bring a gun along with his lunch bag and start a shooting spree during the mid-day crunch, they’re still liable to hurt your company even in small doses. Retaliation may come in many forms from the petty stuff like the theft of every paper clip inside the office and the worst, like having your whole client database leaked to your competitor. And who’s most likely to be able to do that? Yup. Mr. System/Network Admin.

Okay, I might be exaggerating. Everyone who’s got squat knowledge about computers can, one way or another, hack into sensitive information and sell them out as part of disgruntled rage but logic points us to the immense power of your IT guy.

Here’s a great article on research findings that your IT guy is a key person in terms of security and the integrity of your business. That person can either be your keykeeper or a security threat himself.

According to the research, 86 per cent of those who committed cyber-crimes held technical positions and 90 per cent had system administrator or privileged system access. Almost half - 41 per cent - of those who sabotaged IT systems were employed at the time they did it but most crimes were committed by insiders following termination.

While most IT admin will probably be up in arms at this, it is sound advice. Beware of any weird and out-of-line behavior from your IT if you’re top management. It just might spell your company’s demise. Make sure that you also keep track of what your IT department has been doing in their measures to keep your system integrity.

Then again, if ever your IT guy does lose his screws, better take a good look athow you’re running the business. Only a crazy work place can drive people to be crazy enough to bring your whole business down.

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