Malware on PC Gets Man Fired, Criminal Charges

Michael Fiola was given a Dell Latitude notebook for his job. Later, thanks to a misconfigured Microsoft server that was supposed to keep his computer up to date, the Dell somehow got infected with child pornography. He was fired from his job and ended up fighting criminal charges, according to Computerworld on Wednesday. Last week, prosecutors dropped their case.

A forensic investigator found that his PC was heavily infected with malware, likely the cause of the damaging files found on his computer by his company.

Mr. Fiola admitted that heis not a computer-savvy kind of guy and hunts-and-pecks his e-mail.

Asked about the effect on his life, he told CW: "It was horrible. No paycheck. I lost all my benefits. I lost my insurance. My wife is very, very understanding. She took the bull by the horns and found an attorney. I was just paralyzed; I couldnit do anything. I canit describe the feeling to you. I wouldnit wish this on my worst enemy. Itis just devastating....

"We spent many weekends at home just crying. Iim 53 years old, and I donit think Iive cried as much in my whole life as I did in the past 18 months."

Mr. Fiola is in a new job now; heill never work for the previous employer who failed to protect him. He doesnit surf the Web with his new companyis computer either. Those days are over, he said.