Technical blackmail, how to beat it?

Question

If you have an ecommerce company, and a technical manager who holds all the passwords and information needed to run the site decided to with-hold that information unless he 'got what he wanted', are there ways around this?

Answer 1

Yes. The tech manager is an idiot who cannot think in a straight line.
He imagines he holds all the cards but in reality he has put his entire future at stake, and for what? A small increase in power and salary. He is thinking short term profit. While he sees himself as powerful, in reality he has put himself in a vulnerable position. Computer crimes and crimes against companies carry very stiff penalties.
He faces a prison sentance for blackmail and computer crime, after which he'll be lucky to get a job cleaning toilets. He's banking on the company being computer illiterate and afraid of losing all the data to avoid that.

Most companies back up their data in some way. Even if they don't it exists on the hard drives and can be recovered, even if the drives are formatted.
If he carries out his threat he can be arrested. Everything that he does is recorded on the hard drives.
A contract made under duress is not legally binding, so the boss can promise what he likes to get the info. He doesn't have to deliver. After he gets control back he can devise and implement new strategies to prevent the same thing happening again.
But in the meantime he has a number of options, including seeing a solicitor, the police, a private detective and a computer security company to advise him on the best way to collect evidence, salvage his records, lock the manager out of the system and recover the passwords.
The priority is to recover the info, then lock him out, then deal with him.

Answer 2

When this happened at my organization, we called our lawyer. He informed us after reviewing the contract, that technically we had no rights to the passwords as it was not included as part of the contract. The loophole is that the contract stated we owned the website. So, the lawyer sent a letter to the contractor and the contractor responded by changing the passwords and providing up with a copy of them. I then went in and changed the passwords as we no longer wished that contractor to have access.

SO, yes there is usually a way around, but it often does not involve them giving you the passwords but rather them changing them and then giving them to you. The reason they don't have to give you the passwords is that it is unknown what the passwords are and sometimes the contractors use personal passwords on business accounts.

Good luck!

Answer 3

This all depends on who owns the site (not as a physical entity but the pages and data that define it).
If you paid for a site to be built then the builder has to hand over all data pertaining to YOUR site when he has finished UNLESS the contract states he hands over at certain intervals any work done.
He may though turn around and say he hasn't done any work in which case you ask for your money back.
If you have paid what was agreed then ask for the pages and data. If he refuses, take him to court.
If he was contracted to do work for you but you have NOT paid him then you probably do not have a claim to it.

Answer 4

Maybe not now, but in the future. Put it in his contract that he put the passwords in your possession. Also, instead of him assigning the passwords, you tell him what the password will be. .Now to your immediate problem, depending upon value, you can get a "geek" in or hunt the internet for password retrievers. Unless he used extreme password protection, the retriever should have the answer (password) in under a day of computer time.

Answer 5

If you have a contract with him and he is not holding up his end of the contract, you could take him to court, but that would be pretty slow. Or you can gather some hacking abilities and take down his web site with a DDOS attack, but that could get you in trouble with the law. Or you could give him what he wants, but that would be pretty weak willed. Or you could call him up and calmly explain to him that you don't really want to "give him what he wants" if it's not what you already agreed, and that if he doesn't provide you access again, that you will take one of the first two steps mentioned above - your choice which.

Answer 6

My brother grew to become into with an abusive female. He grew to become into in a welding accident at artwork and chopped the counsel of two of his hands off - ensuing in him wanting pins for them. nicely, together as he slept, his spouse pulled the pins out of his hands - my brother, has been married for the reason that then, divorced the 2d spouse and is gettin' married a third time in July and he nonetheless jerks wide awake each and every night from what his first spouse did to him. and he or she might do a similar subject as your brother's spouse is doin' - she'd hit herself and make contact with the law enforcement officers, pointing out that my brother grew to become into hittin' her.. If the roommate has seen the abuse, perhaps you may get her/him to talk up and say that definite, the female is abusing him. it is your terrific guess as of fantastic now - extraordinarily in the adventure that your brother isn't goin' to admit to the abuse. perhaps the roommate speakin' up, he will.

Answer 7

If your site is hosed by another company contact them and explain the situation. As you are the site owner I'm sure they will sort it out

Answer 8

tell this pret that you will get a computer expert in to re design your site with new passwords that only you will have acsess to. Then tell him where to go!

Answer 9

From the movie 'War Games' comes Joshua's answer: "The only winning move is not to play." I suggest you take his advice
concerning competition, company wars, and company games...

Answer 10

if you had a contract with him then yeah it's called a lawsuit buddy.