Worker's software 'time bomb'
 

A DISGRUNTLED ex-worker has been convicted of planting a software "time bomb" in his former employer's computer system.

Jurors in San Francisco took less than two hours to convict 39-year-old William Shea of using malicious computer code to sabotage the Silicon Valley debt collection agency where he clashed with bosses, Luke Macaulay of the US Attorney's Office said.
Shea was hired to manage financial software of a Silicon Valley debt collection agency in 2001, and placed in a "performance improvement plan" the first week of 2003 due of "adverse employment issues," prosecutors said.

Shea planted destructive coding in the company's computer system, then stopped showing up for work January 17, 2003, Macaulay said. Shea was subsequently fired.

The computer "time bomb" detonated at the end of that month, deleting and corrupting financial data from more than 50,000 debt accounts, Mr Macaulay said.

The company's exact loss due to the sabotage was not know, but amounted to more than $US100,000 ($131,388), prosecutors said.

Shea could be sentenced to five years in prison and fined $US250,000 in the wake of his conviction on a charge of intentionally damaging a computer, Mr Macaulay said.

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