G 0.24 Destruction of Equipment or Data Storage Media

Through negligence, improper use, or untrained handling, destruction of equipment and data storage media can occur, which can significantly disrupt IT system operations.

There is also a risk that important information will be lost through destruction, which cannot be reconstructed at all or only with great effort.

Examples:

• In a company, an insider exploited his knowledge that an important server was sensitive to excessively high operating temperatures by blocking the ventilation slots for the power supply fan with an object placed behind the server. Two days later, the hard drive in the server suffered a temperature-related defect, and the server was down for several days.
• An employee was so upset by the repeated crashes of the system that he took out his anger on his workstation computer. In doing so, the hard drive was damaged so badly by kicks against the computer that it became unusable. The data stored here could only be partially recovered from a backup from the day before.
• Overturned cups of coffee or moisture entering during flower watering can cause short circuits in an IT system.