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At the beginning of the new year, Jiangjiao Online, the National College Entrance Examination score inquiry website under the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Education of China, has triggered extensive heated public discussions on the Internet. According to relevant information, the database of the aforesaid website was deleted, and the incident is colloquially dubbed "database deletion and absconding". Had this incident taken place during the National College Entrance Examination score inquiry period, it would have affected tens of millions of examinees.

In the digital era, data has become a core asset of enterprise operations, whose security is vital to the survival and development of enterprises. However, malicious acts such as "employees deleting corporate databases and absconding", as seen in the Jiangjiao Online incident, occur from time to time, dealing a heavy blow to enterprises. This article will, from a professional legal perspective, conduct an in-depth analysis of the nature of such acts, rights protection strategies available to enterprises and relevant legal key points, so as to provide comprehensive and practical legal guidance for enterprises and relevant practitioners.

I. Legal Definition of the Conduct of Employees Deleting the Company's Database and Absconding

As a popular satirical online buzzword, "shanku paolu" (literally: delete the database and abscond) refers to the act whereby an employee of an enterprise, prior to resignation and for malicious purposes including but not limited to venting resentment, coercing the enterprise to obtain illegitimate interests, arbitrarily deletes the enterprise's data without obtaining the legitimate authorization of the enterprise. Such data covers all key areas of the enterprise's operation, including but not limited to customer information, business materials, financial data and core research and development achievements. Such data constitutes key support for the enterprise to carry out business operations and maintain its market competitiveness. Once such data is maliciously deleted, the enterprise will be confronted with multiple crises such as business interruption and trade secret leakage.

II. A Multi-Dimensional Legal Review of "Employees' Deletion of Corporate Databases and Abscondence"

(I) Violation of Enterprise Rules and Regulations

Pursuant to the *Labor Contract Law of the People's Republic of China* and the principle of autonomous enterprise management, most enterprises have formulated detailed provisions on data management and protection in documents such as labor contracts and employee handbooks. Provisions targeting the misconduct of unauthorized deletion of database data and abscondment of relevant responsible personnel are usually scattered in sections including operation specifications, confidentiality clauses and information security systems.

Unauthorized deletion of enterprise data is usually explicitly defined as a serious disciplinary violation and dereliction of duty. Where such act meets the threshold of serious disciplinary violation as stipulated in the internal rules of an enterprise, the enterprise shall have the right to terminate the labor contract in accordance with the law without paying economic compensation pursuant to Article 39 of the *Labor Contract Law of the People's Republic of China*. In the labor contract dispute between Qin and Song Co., Ltd., the court, based on the audio recording submitted by the defendant, the fact that the plaintiff admitted to deleting files, and the expenses incurred for data recovery by a third party, affirmed that the company had suffered economic losses, and further ruled that the company's termination of the labor contract was lawful. In the second-instance labor dispute case involving Dai et al., the court held that employees have the obligation to properly preserve the company's data assets before resignation in accordance with the provisions of the involved company's employee handbook, and upheld the legality of the company's termination of the labor contract. In the labor dispute between Chengdu Yanmou Company and Zhang, the court also ruled that the termination of the labor contract was lawful in light of the company's internal rules and the fact that the worker admitted to deleting the company's data in chat records.

For science and technology-based enterprises and their core departments such as research and development (R&D) and operation and maintenance (O&M), data security is of critical importance. Where an enterprise fails to formulate a clearly-defined data management system, it will lack valid grounds for imposing effective restraints and taking corresponding handling measures when its employees commit database deletion acts, making it difficult for the enterprise to safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.

(II) Constitutes a civil tort

From the perspective of civil law, the act of an employee deleting enterprise data without authorization constitutes a tort. Pursuant to Article 1165 of the *Civil Code of the People's Republic of China*, where an actor infringes upon the civil rights and interests of others due to fault and causes damage thereto, the actor shall bear tort liability. The employee's act of database deletion has obvious subjective fault and causes economic losses to the enterprise, thus shall bear liability for compensation in accordance with the law.

In the tort case of Aimou Company v. Su Mou, Aimou Company alleged that Su Mou developed programs to delete log data, which rendered the deliverables of the company's information security reports unusable, and claimed nearly RMB 90,000 in damages. In the tort case of Shenzhen Lemou Company v. He Mou, Lemou Company alleged that He Mou deleted drawing files upon his resignation, which disrupted hardware maintenance and R&D work and led to the delayed opening of the store, and demanded data restoration as well as more than RMB 50,000 in compensation.

Based on the author's experience in handling such cases, losses suffered by enterprises generally include direct expenses for data recovery and indirect losses arising from damage to trade secrets caused by data breaches. For example, where a salesperson of a company deleted the customer information database prior to resignation, the enterprise spent hundreds of thousands of yuan on data recovery and lost key customers due to the leakage of customer information, the infringing employee shall be liable for compensation for such losses.

(III) Suspected of Committing Criminal Offenses

1. Crime of Destroying Computer Information Systems: Pursuant to Article 286 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, whoever, in violation of state regulations, deletes, modifies, adds to or interferes with the functions of a computer information system, thereby causing the system to fail to operate normally with serious consequences; or conducts deletion, modification or addition operations on data and application programs stored, processed or transmitted in the system with serious consequences, shall be suspected of committing the Crime of Destroying Computer Information Systems. In judicial practice, where an employee maliciously deletes key data resulting in the paralysis of an enterprise's business system, if the circumstance meets the statutory threshold for serious consequences, the perpetrator shall be investigated for criminal liability in accordance with the law.

Dan Mou intruded into the server of the cp.59.cn website in October 2013, deleted the original data and demanded RMB 5,000, which caused a direct economic loss of RMB 22,000 to Zhengzhou Moumou Electronic Technology Development Co., Ltd. As he had a relevant prior criminal record, he was finally convicted of the crime of disrupting computer information systems and sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of two years and six months. After Wu Mou resigned from Shanghai Yunmou Information Technology Co., Ltd. due to a labor dispute, he deleted important files on the company's server from October to December 2020, resulting in functional impairment of the "Zhu Mou" APP, and the company paid RMB 12,000 for data restoration.

2. Crime of Sabotaging Production and Business Operations: Pursuant to Article 276 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China, whoever, for the purpose of venting spite for retaliation or other personal purposes, destroys or damages machinery and equipment, slaughters draft animals, or sabotages production and business operations by other means, is suspected of committing the crime of sabotaging production and business operations. In the digital era, data is of vital importance to the production and business operations of enterprises. Where an employee deletes the enterprise's database, causing severe obstruction to production and business operations and serious consequences, such act may also constitute this crime.

In July 2018, after being dismissed by a Shenzhen-based company, Luo Mou logged into the company's server twice for retaliation and deleted the Jinmou and E-Tuo Systems, resulting in the suspension of the company's business operations. The economic losses caused therefrom were assessed at RMB 171,000. The court found that Luo Mou committed the crime of sabotaging production and business operations, and sentenced him to fixed-term imprisonment of one year and two months.

3. Crime of Infringement of Trade Secrets: Pursuant to Article 9 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law of the People's Republic of China, any act of obtaining, disclosing, using or allowing others to use a right holder's trade secrets by improper means, or disclosing or using trade secrets in breach of confidentiality obligations, constitutes trade secret infringement. Where the data deleted by an employee contains an enterprise's trade secrets and meets the constitutive elements of trade secret infringement, the employee shall not only bear civil compensation liability, but may also be investigated for criminal responsibility for violating Article 219 of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China.

III. Comprehensive Legal Strategies for Enterprise Rights Protection

(I) Promptly Cease Infringing Acts

Once an enterprise discovers that any of its employees has deleted the enterprise's databases, it shall immediately activate the emergency response mechanism to stop the tortious act without delay. Pursuant to contractual stipulations and technical specifications, the enterprise shall submit an application for access privilege reset to its cooperation partners, reset the super administrator account, and prevent the risk of further data impairment. In the meantime, the enterprise shall issue to the employee a written notice of disciplinary violation, warning letter or lawyer's letter, explicitly notify the employee of the illegality of his/her conduct, demand the immediate cessation of the tortious act, and declare that it reserves the right to pursue legal liability against the employee. Such documents can serve the functions of warning and evidence preservation.

(II) Comprehensively Preserve Evidence of Infringement

When curbing infringement acts, an enterprise shall collect evidence simultaneously. On the one hand, it shall obtain records of data deletion operations through background technologies, including operation time, account number, file path, etc.; on the other hand, it shall preserve electronic data such as chat records and emails between employees and the enterprise. For example, the server logs of an enterprise clearly demonstrate an employee's database deletion operation, which provides solid evidence for the enterprise's rights protection. In addition, the enterprise shall also collect evidence of economic losses, such as invoices for data recovery fees paid to third parties, records of reasonable overtime expenses, statements of direct economic losses arising from business interruption, etc., so as to provide a factual basis for compensation claims.

(III) Reasonable Application of Reporting to the Police and Litigation

After completing evidence preservation, an enterprise shall choose the approach to safeguarding its legitimate rights and interests according to the nature of the employee's conduct. If the employee's conduct is suspected of constituting a crime, the enterprise shall timely file a report with the public security organ, cooperate with the criminal investigation, and claim compensation for economic losses through an incidental civil action in criminal proceedings. If the conduct does not constitute a crime, or the enterprise chooses to initiate a separate civil action, it may file a lawsuit with the people's court in accordance with the *Civil Procedure Law of the People's Republic of China*, requiring the employee to bear the liability for tort compensation. During the litigation, the enterprise shall make full use of evidence to strive for the court's support.

IV. Legal Implications and Compliance Guidelines

(I) Data rights and interests have been granted comprehensive legal protection.

Article 127 of the *Civil Code of the People's Republic of China* stipulates that where there are provisions in laws on the protection of data and online virtual property, such provisions shall apply, which explicitly confirms that data, as a new type of property, is protected by law. Article 7 of the *Data Security Law of the People's Republic of China* emphasizes that the state protects data-related rights and interests of individuals and organizations. Laborers shall bear the obligation of properly safekeeping data involved in their work on the basis of labor contract relationships and professional ethics.

(2) Enterprises shall establish a sound data security management system

Enterprises shall elevate data security management to a strategic level. They shall specify detailed management rules on data aggregation, backup, access rights and other related matters, and define employees' liability for compensation for data damage in labor contracts and internal rules and regulations. They shall regularly organize employees to participate in data security training to enhance employees' legal awareness, and establish and improve data retention and backup mechanisms to reduce the risk of data loss.

(3) Employees shall abide by professional ethics and resolve disputes in accordance with the law.

Employees shall strictly abide by professional ethics and labor discipline, perform the duty of loyalty to the enterprise, properly preserve the enterprise's data, and hand over relevant materials pursuant to relevant provisions upon resignation. In the event of a labor dispute with the enterprise, the employee shall resolve the dispute through legitimate channels such as consultation, arbitration or litigation. Illegal acts such as unauthorized deletion of the enterprise's database are strictly prohibited, otherwise the perpetrator shall bear civil compensation liability and even criminal liability.

The act of employees deleting enterprise database data and absconding thereafter inflicts extremely severe harms. Enterprises and employees shall fully recognize the significance of data security, strictly abide by laws, regulations and enterprise rules and systems, and jointly safeguard a sound workplace order and data security environment.