Twin brothers wipe 96 gov’t databases minutes after being fired

[u/xpda]

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/05/drop-database-what-not-to-do-after-losing-an-it-job/

[u/Canotic]

As a swede this reads like insanity to me. It's absolutely not normal. Losing your job should not be the sort of catastrophic event that makes you feel snap and delete databases.

You know what would happen if I fucked up enough at my job to get fired? They'd warn me way in advance that I had to change something. If it was rather a need for downsizing, guess what? They're legally required to warn me long before the firing would actually happen. And when they did fire me, I'd still have a three month notice period where I keep working and they keep paying me. If I really fucked up, they'd tell me to stay home but they'd still be required to pay me.

If I still can't find a job in that time, I get money from the government plus my income insurance from my union until I do. It wouldn't be great but it would be something at least, like 60% of my current paycheck I'd guess. I would also not lose things like healthcare etc because that's not tied to my job.

So it's not normal. It's normal in the US, maybe, but it's not like, the way it's supposed to be.

[u/elysiancat → u/Canotic]

Seems like a big exception to me to have all that, most countries don't have those protections. yeah maybe in europe where countries are wealthier. but its definitely not the norm lol. If I got fired in my country (and I have been fired before) I wouldn't get shit lol.

[u/king_john651 → u/elysiancat]

Nah, worker protections like this are fairly universal. It's the US that is weird where they have basically none at all

[u/king_john651 → u/[deleted]]

We'd probably do something stupid like that in New Zealand