Security

Digital Bomb Creator Goes Behind Bars

Medco Health Solutions' ex-sys admin sent to jail

By Bogdan Popa, Security and Search Engines Editor

10th of January 2008, 21:56 GMT

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Yung-Hsun Lin, 51-year-old, from Montville, New Jersey, will get an unexpected holiday behind bars, as he has been sentenced to 30 months in prison. Yung-Hsun was hired as a sys admin at Medco Health Solution, and just after he found out that he might lose his job, he decided to build a computer virus and to deploy it on the company's computers.

The infection, which was first scheduled for April 2004, "was designed to wipe out critical data stored

on more than 70 servers", according to The Register. However, the virus failed to do any damage due to coding errors, so the sys admin had to rebuild the infection and to plant it again. April 23, 2005 was the day supposed to come with the virus launch, but the new sys admin discovered the threat in January 2005 and removed it.

Yung-Hsun Lin pleaded guilty in September 2007, admitting that he planted a "logic bomb" on the Medco's computers. "It is important to note that this prosecution could not have occurred without the cooperation of Medco, which brought Mr. Lin to our attention immediately after it uncovered his activities", said U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie. "Unfortunately, the case also highlights the dangers posed by the occasional disgruntled, rogue employee who is well situated and able to cause such potential damage and disruption at a company", Christie said at that time.

Besides the 30 months in jail sentence, the former sys admin has to pay $81,200 in compensation to the company. According to the New Jersey Star-Ledger, the judge considered Yung-Hsun's actions pretty serious "because it could have hurt people".

"Certainly this was a very thought out and intentional crime, a willful thing. I do believe the defendant has all the necessary tools to come back and be a contributing member of society", U.S. District Judge, Jose Linares, said according to the source mentioned above.

TAGS:

security | prison | virus

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