Sysadmin 'fesses up to wrecking his former employer's IT systems

Ex-Agilent staffer faces 10 years in the cooler

A former sysadmin with HP-spinoff Agilent has pleaded guilty to intentionally damaging the company's systems after he was laid off.

Kenneth Kezeor, 47, worked for Varian from 1997 until 2010, when it was bought by Agilent. Two years later, he was laid off as part of a general staff reduction.

He did not take the news well, and for the next four months used his sysadmin access to "impair the availability and integrity of data, programs, systems, or information" – FBI language for doing everything he could to screw things up.

Kezeor, of Felton, California, also admitted in his plea bargain that he used another employee's account to do some damage to the company's customer support app.

He was indicted in 2014 and charged with one count of intentional transmission causing damage to a protected computer, and one count of intentional access to a protected computer recklessly causing damage. He was subsequently also charged with aggravated identity theft.

As part of his plea deal, Kezeor has pled guilty to the single count of intentional transmission. He is currently free on bond and scheduled to be sentenced in September. He faces a maximum 10 years in jail and $250,000 fine. ®