136
4 YEARS?! And gaming companies can just build a kill switch into their game and get no penalty?
The defendant breached his employer’s trust
The company breached employee trust when they fired a bunch of people during a "realignment".
Four years is far too long. If he had run over the CEO in the parking lot he wouldn't have gotten four years.
It's because they can quantify damages that way. Because you legally cannot put a value on the life of a "human" (still unsure if CEOs are human, but legally they still are), it's just "murder" and not "you cost us eleventy billion dollars in downtime." One is more negotiable in terms of damages than the other.
For developers in similar situations, where the corporate overlords make your life miserable; use dead man's triggers Instead of a simple killswitch: manually start handling certificates, introduce memory leaks that you can easily clear, have excessive disk filling logs that you can daily clear, and all kinds of other stuff that is a perpetual dumpster fire that you extinguish as part of your job. Oh, and don't forget to forget commenting and documenting. The next developer should instantly learn the pressure they have been putting on you.
You're an asshole
I have been burned out by project managers way too hard to have any respect for the capitalist tech world. I have more than 15 years of programming experience yet I'm literally looking for a job on a farm or warehouse.
Errr
That's EXACTLY why I did that in the past. It wasn't an accident at all. Nope. It was future proofing my job. Completely intentional.
I'd like to imagine countless instances of this that we never hear about because there just isn't anything concrete to write a news article about
Well the guy from the article is named David Lu and added a function with the name IsDLEnabledinAD. That by itself deserves an article.
company ruins life of employee: stonk
employee ruin company: immediate imprisonment
edit:
Ultimately, Eaton Corp. bore substantial costs getting its network back online
actually, it did nothing to the company but cost it a few bucks. do not pass go/collect $200.
this person was not fired, he was laid off. he was not actively harming the company until the company ruined his life.
I mean the guy was just laid off. They didn’t “ruin his life.” They employed him for 11 years.
4 years is a bit much though!
He was employed for 11 years.
IDK about you, but if I get laid off, my life changes significantly by the next missed paycheck.
If it was in Europe, people being made redundant are typically given several months pay, but it's America so he probably just got a t-shirt and a cardboard box.
Dipshit. Just do bad coding and leave timebombs that could be considered an accident.
That just makes you a bad developer. And ripe for firing.
I mean, there's a reason he got fired and it wasn't because he's a genius...
Yeah, name it after the boss, not yourself!
this was stupid. A career ending move. no one’s gonna hire someone who wrote a logic bomb at their last job.
Have to make an example of them lest the surfs realize they have power
*serfs but yeah
* Smerfs
Thought that didn’t look right
They're both words. Serf is the one for a person subject to someone else's rule just to live. (obvs not fully accurate definition, but dictionaries can give you the real deal)
Yea, sorry, English is my first language.
I actually cannot believe you have any upvotes for this type of comment.
If computers and networking were not involved, and we lived in the 1970s, this would be the equivalent of setting off a remote bomb in every factory across the country for your former company when you get fired.
This was a severe and premeditated act, and 4 years is what I would consider to be a moderate sentence for this type of computer crime.
I'll agree to start imprisoning people for using their job to affect profit when CEOs start getting jailed for affecting the profit of those laid off.
Also, the equivalent to setting off a bomb? Get a grip on reality.
It is in no way a bomb. If this was the 1970's, it would be the same as changing the combination on the safe and not telling anyone the combination after being fired.
And how many people died or were injured? How much damage to property occurred?
Looks to me like he just wasted time and hurt revenue. That's not any of the above.
You live in there modern world and see how things are going and your can't believe people support the destruction of established systems? Ok.
No one reviwing his code? Sounds like a timebomb in its self.
Gotta stay "lean".
This was my first thought. Just zero code review going on? Some random server only that dude knew about? tf kind of controls these people have in place?
Oh right, none of the shit the company should have had.
Instead of jail time, the government should consider giving this guy whistleblower status and investigating the corp for negligence.
Kinda funny. 4 years seems excessive to me but what do I know.
Kinda heroic, ngl. I think the prison sentence is appropriate, but if I was let go after 11 years, I’d harbor fantasies of doing something similar. They’d stay fantasies, though.
Good, make sure you document that. Then be sure any such thing that accidentally happens is named after the person who most deserves to be pruned.
Got it. MouselemmingFromLemmyKillswitch.exe pushed to production
I imagine you must be quite skilled to be able to manage your whole-ass company (and run their systems into the ground). So it shouldn't be a problem to get another job after being fired.
Why fuck with your future, just because of your own ego and a drive for revenge? That guy must've watched too many animes.
this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2025
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