In honor of Thanksgiving, here are our picks for 2006’s biggest turkeys in IT. And boy, there were some doozies.
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| Microsoft’s buggy patchesIn exquisitely turkey-like behavior, seemed like Microsoft kept having to patch its patches in 2006. Examples are here, here, and here. Speak up in our forum.Who do you think should be on this list? |
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| Sony’s battery fiascoSony got into hot water when it was revealed that its batteries could turn laptops into flaming rectangles of death. As many as 8.1 million batteries had to be recalled, from manufacturers like Dell, Apple, Toshiba, Fujitsu, Hitachi and others. Speak up in our forum.Who do you think should be on this list? |
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| Lost laptopsIt seemed like no one could hang on to their laptops in 2006 – and the turkeys couldn’t practice basic encryption on them, either. Whether it was Starbucks, the Commerce Department or the Department of Veterans Affairs, it seemed like the laptop losses just kept coming. Speak up in our forum.Who do you think should be on this list? |
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| Execs of excessChalk one turkey up for all the misbehaving IT executives that paid a price in 2006. CA’s CEO Sanjay Kumar pleaded guilty to accounting fraud and was sentenced to 12 years in jail. Savvis CEO Robert McCormick late last year stepped down after it was revealed he ran up a $241,000 bill at a topless club. McAfee President Kevin Weiss was fired, and Chairman and CEO George Samenuk stepped down, in the wake of a stock-options investigation. And the king of all turkeys, Bernard Ebbers, went to prison to serve 25 years for his role in WorldCom’s $11 billion accounting scandal. Speak up in our forum.Who do you think should be on this list? |
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| HP’s board scandalThe IT scandal of the year was top turkey HP’s ill-advised approach to investigating boardroom leaks to news media, which involved spy tactics to obtain phone records of journalists. When the whole sordid story was revealed, HP chairman Patricia Dunn resigned, and with former legal counsel Kevin Hunsaker and three private detectives, faced felony charges. A new “ethics and compliance officer” was hired, – and a cringeworthy song was born. Speak up in our forum.Who do you think should be on this list? |
