Fired IT worker told to hand over password

But worker tells college he wants ‘a clean letter of reference’ — and $200,000

A fired IT employee took his revenge on a forprofit online college before he left, changing a password on an account that stored email and course material for 2,000 students, the Indianapolis-based online school has alleged in a lawsuit.

In his own lawsuit, the employee contends that the administrator’s password was autosaved on his company laptop that was returned to the college and his firing was racial discrimination.

But lawyers for the American College of Education said Triano Williams of Riverdale, Ill., really wants the school to rehire him as a consultant — for $200,000.

Welcome to the new frontier of tech concerns in the cloud.

“A lot of organizations are using cloud-based services and online services like this,” said Von Welch, director of Indiana University’s Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research. “Even under a good situation, somebody could leave, and then you find out the cloud service you depend on gets canceled because maybe the bill didn’t get paid.”

The American College of Education offers online masters and doctorate degrees to teachers across the USA for $235 to $306 per credit hour. Total costs for a degree can range from $8,000 to more than $10,000, according to information on the school’s website.

The college’s IT employees had been spread across the country, too, but the school decided early last year to give them a choice to move to Indianapolis or resign and take a severance package. Other IT workers resigned, leaving Triano Williams as the sole systems administrator when he was fired April 1 after refusing to relocate from suburban Chicago, according to the college’s lawsuit filed in Marion County Superior Court here.

Before he left, the college alleges that Williams changed the password and login information on a Google account.

In May, returning students could no longer access their email accounts, papers and other coursework. Google suspended access after too many failed login attempts to the administrative account.

School officials asked Google for help. Google refused to grant access to anyone other than Williams, who was listed as the account’s sole administrator, the college said.

When officials called Williams, he directed them to his lawyer.

“In order to amicably settle this dispute, Mr. Williams requires a clean letter of reference and payment of $200,000,” lawyer Calvita Frederick wrote in a letter to the college’s lawyer.

Meanwhile, Williams filed a lawsuit of his own in the U.S. District Court of Chicago, claiming the college bullied him and discriminated against him and other black employees.

Williams told the school the password had been saved on a laptop computer that he returned to the school in May. However, the college claims that Williams erased the laptop’s hard drive and installed a new operating system. Williams’ lawyer told The Indi

anapolis Star that the college must have erased the hard dive.

In his federal complaint, Williams said he couldn’t move from his home because he has joint custody of his young daughter. He contended that the relocation was just a way for the college to force him out. By filing its case in Indiana, the college wanted to make it difficult and costly for him to attend court hearings, his suit said. So far, Williams has failed to appear for multiple hearings in Indianapolis. Judge Heather Welch of Marion County Superior Court issued a default judgement in September and ordered Williams to pay the college $248,350 in damages.

Williams has asked the federal court to throw out the Indiana case and take over jurisdiction.

Triano Williams was the sole systems administrator for the American College of Education when he was fired after refusing to relocate from suburban Chicago to Indianapolis.