The Justice Department today announced that they foiled a plot by a former Fannie Mae contractor who was fired from unleashing a virus.
According to the Feds the virus would have destroyed data on all of the finance company's 4,000 computers tomorrow (Saturday January 31).
Rajendrasinh B. Makwana, 35, of Glen Allen, Va., a citizen of India, was fired early on the afternoon of Oct. 24 from his job at Fannie Mae's data center. An affidavit states he was fired for erroneously writing programming instructions two weeks earlier that changed the settings on high-speed computers.
However, beofre surrendering his Fannie Mae badge and laptop computer at the end of the day Oct. 24, Makwana "intentionally and without authorization caused and attempted to cause damage to Fannie Mae's computer network by entering malicious code."
The indictment says the virus was found "by chance" in late October and removed.