If you’re a major US retailer you probably want to check that you’ve got good guys working in your IT security department, right?
So, what on earth went wrong at Home Depot – which has recently had to admit that hackers had used malware to steal some 56 million customers’ credit card details from its North American stores, outranking even the Target breach for its breadth and scale.
I’m not saying that the security team at Home Depot were behind the hack that is costing the company dear, but it does appear that the retailer made some poor choices when it made Ricky Joe Mitchell its senior architect for IT Security.
As Ars Technica reports, Mitchell – who joined Home Depot in 2012, and was promoted to position with responsibility for the entire firm’s security architecture in March of 2013, has something of a chequered history.
There’s no denying that Mitchell has been interested in technology for a long time.
When he was a teenager, Mitchell went by the handle “RickDogg” in online forums.
Nothing wrong with that of course. But a self-penned article from the time, entitled “The story of RICKDOGG”, on his personal website should have rung alarm bells:
I love to write and distribute Viruses. They intrigue me. I have taught myself how to program in assembly, c- – and pascal. I also love to fix computers as well. I am considered smart at school although I am very lazy. I do not like the **bleep** they try to teach me so I get bored and try to liven things up a bit.Sadly, this wasn’t just bravado on display – Mitchell was acting recklessly with malware.
Rickdog 96-? Forever and beyond …
Full Article here/ http://www.hotforsecurity.com/blog/no-prizes-for-guessing-where-this-virus-spreading-teenager-turned-bitter-it-security-guy-ended-up-working-10224.html