Gregg Keizer writes at Computerworld:

Makwana, who worked under contract at the Federal National Mortgage Association, better known as Fannie Mae, was terminated Oct. 24, 2008, after he was accused of creating a settings-changing script without his supervisor's permission. Within 90 minutes of being fired, Makwana allegedly added another malicious script to a Fannie Mae server. The second script, hidden within a legitimate script that ran each morning on Fannie Mae's network, was designed to disable monitoring alerts and all log-ins, delete the root passwords to the 4,000 Fannie Mae servers, erase all data and backup data, power off all the servers and then disable the ability to remotely switch on the machines.

The malicious script, which was set to trigger on Saturday, Jan. 31, was found by another Fannie Mae engineer within days of Makwana's firing.

The script would have "caused millions of dollars in damage and reduced if not shutdown [sic] operations at [Fannie Mae] for at least one week," the government's complaint read.[Ex-Fannie Mae engineer pleads innocent to server bomb charge | FBI confirms goof in naming contractor's employer By Gregg Keizer, February 2, 2009]

Makwana is an "Indian National" whose "employment record was a matter of some confusion". As I have reported before, it is simple idiocy to place young men far from home in a country they may not identify with or understand very well in charge of large sums of money and critical systems. What I want to know is who are the management team at Fannie Mae that let this idiocy happen?

I think there is circumstantial evidence we have seen some similar events at other companies. The question is when will something big enough happen that can't be covered up-and what types of organized activity are happening in this confusion?

There are well organized fraud gangs that have infiltrated every major bank, government regulatory and law enforcement agency, according to fraud agents I have worked with. Normally fraud artists try to keep a low profile. However, in the middle of a "stimulus" involving hundreds of billions of expenditures—and massive bailouts of financial institutions, I can believe they might change their standard operating procedure. If someone is going for one last big score, a major act of computer vandalism would be a great way to cover it up.

I don't have an opinion in the Makwana case. It is entirely plausible to me that he's a patsy set up to take the blame when something much bigger happens. What is scary to me is that some of the sources cited in the article also appear to be folks that may not have a lot of identification with the US or its people. I don't think the management of Fannie Mae-and many other major American companies really understand their operations very well any more-and may have effectively lost control of their companies.

I have some real empathy for many H-1b workers. Many of these folks have been promised much more than will ever be delivered to them. Some may even need assistance to return home.

The thing is, the H-1b program was a bad idea from the start. Indentured servitude has no place in the United States. If we are going to admit immigrants, it should be as equals—not as illegal aliens or guest workers-and those immigrants should be selected on their ability to contribute to a future in which the average American is better off-not to prop up a regime of increased concentration of wealth.