I saw this happen before. A newish IT guy accidentally deployed a script to a few hundred machines that took down the whole worldwide intranet for a multi-billion dollar juggernaut for an hour or so. He was supposedly forgiven, but ended up on a "performance improvement plan" where he had a bunch of impossible tasks, and every shortcoming was documented to use against him until he was fired.
I wish things worked the way you think they do, or if not that way, I wish they'd at least just shitcan the dude on the spot (with a few months' severance) and be done with it.
You might even get a free laptop out of it..
(This comment is only considering employment in the UK)
These tactics are hard to prove if someone goes to court over it (probably) but are just as hard to recover emotionally from and can stunt a person all the way to their next job or many.
Would you joke about firing someone for a mistake during an interview? I would consider that a dealbreaker if I were interviewing someone, as in "this interview is over, go home".
Do you consider HN an appropriate forum for pithy one-liner jokes that do not contribute to the discussion? Reconsider.
1) A single person is responsible for the flaw.
2) A single person is either already under performance review or committed gross neglect of duties.
3) The above single person will be terminated rather than retrained.
If this is how you would speak about your own employees during a security incident, your business deserves to fail.
If this is how you expect to be treated by your employer during a security incident, you should seek employment elsewhere.