Comment by _u844 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by _u844 | Hacker News Reader

Op here, Thanks for all the advice, its honestly be helpfull and eye opening.

To clear up a few things.

- The comments from the ceo were via text and more "I would of called you if i thought you did something" and "ill talk to them but I dont know what more I can do". TBH I was angry and not exactly cordial in my communication.

- From what I understand the "hack" wasn't my credentials but someone logging in near where I live with the CEO's credentials and changing some settings in the admin. This honestly is what scares me the most... everything in the admin is (or at least was while I was there) soft delete only with 5 minute interval database backups. The action has a potential to rune my life but the actual impact is basically a mild annoyance to the company... at this point I get concerned about sabotage.

- In terms of defamation apparently certain individuals though it be funny to take where I live and put it up on one of the system monitoring screens for the whole company to see. Currently I am seeking counsel to both protect my self and see if this action is something that is worth responding to.

Why would you know the CEO's credentials? Even if you did I would start pointing that out very loudly. At least until any blamers backed back into their holes.

Yeah... geolocation or IP addresses can be spoofed. But if it was the CEO's credentials, why in the world would you be getting the blame?

It could be the CEO making the change and pinning the blame on you. That would seem to be the easiest explanation.

Make sure you tell them that they should contact law enforcement to report the breach. If they don't want to do that that would be a pretty good sign they know exactly who did it and that it wasn't you. If they credibly believed it was you they would have done so already.

If it's a big company, couldn't he also get ahead of the story to protect himself and announce the breach via Medium or reaching out to media?

I mean the company already threw him under the bus, might as well transition from 'possible hacker' to 'whistleblower'. People tend to look more favorably on whistleblowers.

But IANAL, so YMMV and what not.

Edit: I'm betting the CEO would rather NOT be known for a data breach, and get that publicity. So it might be a good bartering place for getting a good 'written' recommendation, and some sort of assurance that the CEO if contacted will stick to what he said in the recommendation and not paint the ex-employee in a negative light. Not sure if there's a legal contract for this sort of exchange - but there probably is.

No, that would get him into even hotter water, especially if there is a 'non disparaging' clause in the termination papers. You are not a lawyer, so don't give advice that will most likely lead to the OP being sued by his former employer, especially not an employer that has already been shown to be all too ready to blame the OP for their misery.

> - In terms of defamation apparently certain individuals though it be funny to take where I live and put it up on one of the system monitoring screens for the whole company to see. Currently I am seeking counsel to both protect my self and see if this action is something that is worth responding to.

Your lawyer will probably want to handle all communication from here on out. I'd also stop posting stuff about the case in a public forum, and possibly start deleting this. Your lawyer will have specific recommendations.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com