T 5.2 Manipulation of information or software

There are a number of ways in which information or software can be manipulated: by inputting incorrect data, changing access rights, modifying the contents of accounting data or business correspondence, changing the operating system software, and many more. In principle, it is not only possible to manipulate digital information, but also documents in paper form, for example. However, a perpetrator can only manipulate the information and software to which he has access. The more access rights a person has to the files and directories of the IT systems and the more ways this person has to access information, the more serious the manipulations they will be able to make. If such manipulations are not detected in time, then the smooth operation of business processes and specialised tasks may be seriously disrupted.

Information or software can be manipulated out of revenge to intentionally cause damage or for personal or financial reasons, among others.

Examples:

• In a Swiss financial company, the application software for certain financial services was tampered with by an employee. This made it possible for him to obtain sizeable amounts of money illegally.
• It is very common for employees to copy customer databases when leaving a company in order to use the customer data for other purposes (i.e. financial gain). Such illegally obtained data of private customers have been used, for example, to produce fake contracts. Employees who leave a government agency or company in anger could also deliberately destroy information or IT systems or block access to important information or IT systems.
• The sensitive information in archived documents usually requires special protection. Manipulation of such documents is especially serious because the manipulation can go unnoticed for years, and even when discovered, it may no longer be possible to properly investigate the incident.
• An employee in accounting became so angry over the promotion of the co-worker with whom she shared an office that she gained access to her co-worker's computer while she stepped out of the office for a short time. She seriously affected the company's published annual operating results just by changing some numbers in the monthly balance sheet.
• An employee is angry because his supervisor did not give him a pay raise. He is so angry that he sends a document disguised as a business letter and containing a macro virus to some of his work colleagues via email. Opening these documents causes numerous files on the affected systems to be modified.