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Many IT employees are afraid that their positions will become obsolete because changes in hardware, software and computer tasks exceed their skills. A former contractor for Siemens came up with a remedy for this: plant logical bombs in projects that he designed, causing them to periodically fail. Then wait for a phone call to resolve things.
On Monday, David A. Tinley, a 62-year-old from Harrison City, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to six months in prison and a $ 7,500 fine on the schedule. The sentence came five months after he pleaded guilty for an accusation of intentional damage to a protected computer. Tinley was a contract officer for Siemens Corporation at the Monroeville, Pennsylvania location.
According to an indictment document filed with the American District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania, the logical bombs that Tinley secretly placed in his projects caused malfunctions after a predetermined period of time. Because Siemens managers were unaware of the logical bombs and did not know the cause of the disruptions, they called Tinley and asked him to fix the misbehavior. The scheme ran from 2014 to 2016.
Tinley will be released under supervision for two years after his prison sentence. He will also pay a refund. The parties in the case came to a total loss amount of $ 42,262.50. Tinley was confronted with no less than 10 years in prison and a fine of $ 250,000.
