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4h ago

Developer Sentenced to Four Years for Planting Kill Switch on Employer’s Network

Prosecutors said he triggered a 2019 kill switch tied to his Active Directory status that locked out thousands.

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Overview

  • U.S. District Judge Pamela A. Barker imposed a 48‑month prison term and three years of supervised release on Aug. 21, with restitution to be set later.
  • A federal jury convicted Davis Lu in March of intentionally damaging protected computers, and the judge denied his motion for a new trial in July.
  • After a 2018 role reduction, Lu embedded destructive code, including infinite Java‑thread loops and deletion of coworker profile files, to crash systems and block logins.
  • The kill switch code, named IsDLEnabledinAD, activated when Lu was placed on leave on Sept. 9, 2019, disrupting logins for thousands of users worldwide and causing hundreds of thousands of dollars in losses.
  • The FBI Cleveland Field Office investigated, and DOJ’s CCIPS with Northern District of Ohio prosecutors led the case, citing forensic evidence such as deleted encrypted data and searches on privilege escalation and hiding processes.