Network Adminstrator Sentenced to 41 Months of Computer Sabotoge in Philadelphia
Source: Yahoo Finance
Network World, the leading network news publication, just reported that Tim Lloyd, a former network administrator, was sentenced Tuesday to 41 months in federal jail and ordered to pay over $2 million in restitution for a 1996 attack on his former employer's computer network.
Tim Lloyd, 39, of Wilmington Del., must now surrender to the U.S. Federal Court May 6. Lloyd was convicted in May of 2000 of planting a software time bomb in a centralized file server at Omega Engineering's Bridgeport, N.J., manufacturing plant. On July 31, 1996, the malicious software code destroyed the programs that ran the company's manufacturing machines, costing Omega more than $10 million in losses and $2 million in reprogramming costs, and eventually leading to 80 layoffs.
Lloyd, who had worked for Omega for 11 years and became ``a trusted member of the family'' there, had actually built the computer network that he would later destroy. Because of the attack, Omega lost its competitive footing in the high-tech instrument and measurement market.
``We will never recover,'' said plant manager Jim Ferguson during court testimony. Lloyd's lawyer, Ed Crisonino, said he will appeal the sentence, which also carries with it a three-year probation. Under federal computer sabotage laws, Lloyd could have received up to five years in jail.
