time bomb

Several months ago, my staff disclosed the password of our database account to the officer (Li) of another division, so as to facilitate his collection of data. I blamed my staff immediately after knowing this and asked him to inform Li that the password should not be used again.

Today, I received a message from the database administrator that Li was still attempting to access the database using our password recently. This really stirred me much! On the one hand, I asked my staff to write an email to condemn Li for his improper behaviour. On the other hand, I blamed my staff for his negligence in keeping the password unchanged for such a long time. I also told him that what he did wrong in the past could result in an unexpected and serious problem in the future - just like a time bomb which could explode at any time.