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Coder faces 10 years' jailtime for creating a 'kill switch' that screwed-up his employers' systems when he was laid off

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Coder faces 10 years' jailtime for creating a 'kill switch' that screwed-up his employers' systems when he was laid off

Probably shouldn't have put his name on it, mind.

Case file: https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/US-v-Lu-2021.pdf

Antiwork: Unemployment for all, not just the rich! @lemmit.online

Coder faces 10 years' jailtime for creating a 'kill switch' that screwed-up his employers' systems when he was laid off

9 comments
  • Finally, on October 7, 2019, Lu "admitted to investigators that he created the code described."

    [...] said Lu's attorney, Ian Friedman, adding that they intended to appeal. "Davis and his supporters believe in his innocence and this matter will be reviewed at the appellate level."

    Never admit culpability. There's always the chance some unknown nation-state-level hacker or other disgruntled employee is doing active sabotage and using the name and credentials of a recently laid off employee to do it. That's what an intelligent hacker would do, not foolishly leave their own name and credentials attached all over the incriminating data.

    Cops always want confessions because proving a crime happened is much harder. Especially with highly tamperable computers which are so difficult to explain to juries.

9 comments