Student wiped data worth thousands

Gareth Pert in Afghanistan, from his Bebo page.

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A promising engineering student who deliberately deleted crucial information from his employer's computer backup systems cost the company hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost business and data recovery.

Gareth Pert, 23, nearly crippled Hamilton business Progressive Hydraulics while acting out of "pure vindictiveness", said company director Rodney Sharp.

And Sharp has warned other employers they stand to lose their life's work if they trust new staff and don't tighten computer security systems.

The specialist engineering company hired Pert while he was completing his degree at Waikato University two years ago. At that time its annual turnover was $1.5 million.

"He was a good student, that's why we employed him. He just got too big for his boots... He thought he was better than he was."

Pert pleaded guilty in Manukau District Court to unauthorised access of a system and intentional damage.

Police said the data deleted was worth more than $150,000 but the true cost is incalculable because of delayed or lost projects and time spent on recovery.

Pert was arrested last month at Auckland International Airport upon his return from Afghanistan where he had been working since the sabotage was reported.

Sharp says Pert tricked him into handing over a backup file containing information about international patents, crucial project data and five years' worth of engineering drawings.

The file was kept off the premises but Pert told Sharp he needed it to fix a corrupt file. Pert then wiped it, as well as two other backups in two fire safes on the premises.

Computer forensics specialists could recover only 40% of the data lost.

"His motivation was that he believed he was worth more than he was getting paid. Instead of talking to us, he started adding on five hours on his time card, so we pulled him up on it," Sharp says.

"I was probably the first person to sit him down and put him in his place... I said, `You've cribbed your time cards.' He said, `I'm worth it'. I said, `I don't care how good you are, it's just dishonest'."

Pert then wiped the backups and never returned to work. There is evidence he also copied some of the commercially sensitive data but he told police he couldn't remember what he did with it.

"It put one of our projects back by 12 months," said Sharp. "I was pretty distraught, to be honest. We went through some trying times."

Sharp said that if he could see Pert who is understood to be back working in Afghanistan until his sentencing in May he would tell him how arrogant and immature he is.

"I would say, 'You had the makings of a good engineer but really you're a nothing now, a no one. All because you wouldn't be man enough to ask for a wage rise'."

The company has recovered from the setback but Sharp warns others to not be too trusting. "Electronic data is actually worth a lot more money than you think. It's not until you lose it that you realise what a key component it is in your business."

Private investigator Ron McQuilter of Paragon New Zealand agrees.

"This happens all the time. It's not that unusual... Backups should be sacrosanct. They should not be something you should be giving to an employee." He says any hint of employee dishonesty should be dealt with swiftly and seriously.

- © Fairfax NZ News