User Crippled A Network While Trying To Learn Nmap
The Register, Monday, July 13th, 2026
A manager took down his company's entire network with a weekend-long Nmap scan, then blamed malware picked up on a business trip.
Roger, who managed teams designing electronic shop tools, decided to explore his company's internal network with Nmap on a slow Friday afternoon.
He launched an ambitious scan across the mid-sized organization spanning engineering, sales, marketing, administration, and manufacturing, and left it running all weekend.
By Monday the network had failed completely, with the IT director and COO unable to establish VPN connections, and troubleshooting traced the problem to Roger's laptop. Rather than admit fault, he claimed he had likely picked up a virus on a recent trip to the company's China office.
IT spent nearly a week scanning the machine, found nothing, issued a warning about safe travel, and returned it with Nmap still installed.