My old company wants to sue me for not providing password information – 4 years after they fired me!
I was the manager of a network engineering team for a medium/large sized for 20 years and was terminated in 2019.
We had various passwords for routers depending on line of business the routers belonged to. My team had the administrative passwords stored in a secure, electronic password vault.
Fast forward to last week when something got into the routers and locked everyone out, now they need the admin passwords but apparently the vault was taken offline and removed two years ago.
Apparently half their business is at a standstill and they can’t make payroll until this is fixed. They called me demanding the passwords and when I couldn’t produce them, they the wanted to sue me.
What a bunch of a-holes. First they fired me they want to sue me 4 years later. Laughable.
Netizens’ comments
- “Per company policy and basic standards of professionalism, I did not retain any company documents, passwords or other information after my employment ended. I cannot provide you what I no longer possess.
Also, I assume you followed basic information security standards that require you to change all administrative passwords after an employee leaves. Therefore, I never possessed the information you now seek.” - The proper response is:
I have a professional responsibility to not retain proprietary information from previous employers which I have discharged. - I always delete all passwords immediately after I leave a job. If they call me 24 hours later, I won’t be able to help them. The liability risk if you get hacked while not employed there is not worth the risk.
- I would tell them I’m sorry I can’t talk to you about this because you said you want to sue me but my lawyer is reachable at this number ######### thank you and have a nice day
- password is: notmyproblem
- Good luck with that. I can’t remember a password I made 30 minutes ago. No way I’d recall an unused one from years ago.
- On a serious note… why would they assume you still had the passwords? They kept the admin passwords the exact same after 4 years even after laying off the team?
- If you’re threatened with being sued. You lawyer up and don’t say a word. You absolutely don’t. Half the advice here makes you liable. It’s merely talk to my lawyer. Get a business lawyer versed in contract law not just any kind of lawyer