Someone who doesn't want to deploy on a Friday?

They deployed this morning that doesn’t imply they implemented anything. I can’t think of a better time that way you have the whole week work on anything that uncovers. Or in the case of something this big they have the rest of the day to freak out.

When I worked there a few years ago, the routing tables were being updated almost all day every day, primarily via automated processes.

It sounds like the perfect time honestly. If you fuck something up, you have the whole week to fix it.

I was thinking more of the ticking time-bomb variety, but that seems as good a time as any?

Nah, a ticking time-bomb would "explode" on Christmas (or Aïd El Kebir, etc.), whenever most of the employees who could do something about it are absent.

Still wasn't clear enough with my analogy! I was thinking more like a dam failure due to operator/designer error, not sabotage (but who knows). The damage is really small signs initially, followed by rolling catastrophic failures.

Ah, my bad, I misread your comment!

Yeah, that could happen.