Information Madness

The logic bomb, a malicious script designed to wipe Fannie Mae's 4,000 servers, was allegedly placed by Rajendrasinh Makwana, an IT contractor who worked in Fannie Mae's Urbana, Md., facility. It was set to execute on Jan. 31.

A logic bomb is a piece of code intentionally inserted into a software system that will set off a malicious function when specified conditions are met. For example, a programmer may hide a piece of code that starts deleting files or infecting network drives or crashing servers, should they ever leave the company.

According to InformationWeek,

The discovery occurred on Oct. 29. Makwana had been terminated as a Fannie Mae contractor on Oct. 24, around 1 or 1:30 p.m., the affidavit says, but his network access was not terminated until late that evening

Makwana was working as Sr. System Admin at Fannie Mae. Before that he was a project manager at AT&T and Sr. Unix System Admin at AIG SunAmerica. He was graduated from South Gujarat University. Check out his LinkedIn.com Profile

Makwana is currently free on $100,000 bail pending trial. He has had to surrender his passport.

If this allegations are true, it is not good. It doesn't set a good example for Indians working as an IT consultant in USA or any other country.

Companies are expecting more of such logic bombs in year 2009