Company's Systems Crashed After Being Sabotaged by Former Employee

Davis Lu, a 55-year-old software developer living in Houston, USA, was found guilty of sabotaging the computer systems of his former employer, Eaton Corporation. It was revealed that Lu crashed the systems with specially written malware after he lost his duties at the company.
 
'Kill Switch' Locks Out Thousands of Employees
 
Eaton Corporation is known as a global power management company that operates electrical, hydraulic and mechanical systems. Davis Lu worked at the company's headquarters in Ohio from 2007 to 2019. However, his authority was reduced after a corporate restructuring in 2018.
 
Lu injected malicious code into the company's computers, which overloaded and crashed the systems by injecting 'infinite loops', constantly recreating Java threads, consuming server resources and preventing employees from logging in.
 
In addition, Lu was found to have deleted his colleagues’ user profiles and deployed a system called a ‘kill switch.’ This code, called ‘IsDLEnabledinAD,’ automatically ran when Lu’s Active Directory account was disabled, cutting off thousands of employees’ access to the system. This mechanism was triggered when Lu was fired on September 9, 2019, causing a massive outage across the company.
 
Facing Prison Sentence
 
The investigation by the US Department of Justice also found that Lu had conducted searches on internet search history for methods to elevate privileges, hide processes and quickly delete files. Authorities said this sabotage caused hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses to the company.
 
The jury convicted Lu of "intentionally damaging protected computers." The maximum penalty for this crime is 10 years in prison, but a final verdict is not yet available.
 
Company's Systems Crashed After Being Sabotaged by Former Employee
 
Source: CUMHA - CUMHURS NEWS AGENCY