Deleting files was cyber sabotage, claim

A SALES manager of a web design company, Artworks, who deleted more than 100 files from his computer on his last day, has been charged with cyber sabotage.

Jason William Christopher Robb is also alleged to have emailed the company's database to his partner the day before he was sacked. The police claim that Robb then contacted one of Artwork's customers and offered to flog them a web page for half the price.

Robb's case is the first that will test New Zealand's tough new computer crime laws, but it appears that all is not well for the courts which are finding the law tricky.

Not only has Robb, 35, denied charges of accessing the computer system without right and unauthorised deletion of data from the system, his brief said the copper's investigation was so seriously flawed that the charges could not be proven and should be dismissed.

Christchurch District Court Judge Edward Ryan has reserved his decision on chucking the case out because of the difficult, highly technical and previously untested issues at the heart of the charges.

According to the Dominion Post, the man's defending lawyer, Dean Russ said a key question was whether the files on Robb's computer had been deleted or wiped. The former might be accidental and the data retrieved but the latter suggested deliberate dishonesty. "This entire prosecution was launched on the back of a now-discredited report. The data analysis is highly questionable," Russ said. The story can be found here. µ