Former employee’s attempt to sabotage UBS PaineWebber backfires spectacularly

Published on December 14th, 2006

This is truly what it means to be hoist on one’s own petard, especially considering a “bomb” was used!

A former UBS PaineWebber (UBSN.VX) employee was sentenced to eight years in prison on Wednesday for planting a computer “logic bomb” on company networks and betting its stock would go down.

The investment scheme backfired when UBS stock remained stable after the computer attack and Roger Duronio lost more than $23,000.

A federal judge in New Jersey sentenced Duronio, 64, to 97 months in prison and ordered him to make $3.1 million in restitution to his former employer, the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.

Shiny. Talk about royally screwing up. This dickhead deserves everything that happened to him, especially as he did it to himself. That’s Karmic justice.

10 users responded in " Former employee’s attempt to sabotage UBS PaineWebber backfires spectacularly "

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# 1 Mr. Fusion said, on December 14th, 2006 at 4:33 pm

When I was a kid, we had a saying,:
“He who laughs last, laughs loudest”.

Just make sure you are the last one laughing.

# 2 OhForTheLoveOf said, on December 14th, 2006 at 4:35 pm

okay…

so 3.1 million (which we all know will NEVER be repaid) is just punitive? The company was not hurt by the attack if I’m reading this right.

# 3 ethanol said, on December 14th, 2006 at 6:26 pm

#2,

I think the article said his ‘bomb’ deleted files on 1000 computers. So maybe the 3.1 million is more than what it cost in labor to restore/recreate those files, but at least there is a basis.

# 4 Mark Derail said, on December 14th, 2006 at 8:49 pm

One of Murphy’s law of computing:
He who laughs last, probably made a backup. See my posts on that tiny HD.

It’s so easy to plant these types of bombs, if you have access to Administrator or Root.

From experience, the guy probably was frustrated big time with his immediate boss, and exacted revenge, trying to profit from the revenge at the same time.

He should have simply McGiver’red his chair to fail in such a way to fall on his back, in front of witnesses, and sue the company for inadequate equipment.
Extremely hard to disprove debilitating chronic back pain.

# 5 Former UBS IT guy said, on December 14th, 2006 at 10:05 pm

I was in IT middle management at UBSPW at the time this occurred. Trust me, it was a royal PITA. I don’t have the real $ figures, but I would say $3.1 million is light for punitive damages. It shut us down from trading for multiple days and pretty much disabled our branches. The program in question was by no means sophisticated, but it was effective.

# 6 OhForTheLoveOf said, on December 14th, 2006 at 10:30 pm

Thanks for the feedback… Now I understand the extent of the damage. It does seem a reasonable figure.

Still, one wonders how successful they will be in recovering the damages. This guy has a pretty bleak future…

# 7 Kevin said, on December 15th, 2006 at 5:52 am

so the guy gets the death sentence for this?? Life in prison?? Look at his age and how much time he must serve, or am I reading this wrong?

# 8 Smartalix said, on December 15th, 2006 at 6:33 am

So people should be excused from trying to destroy something because they’re old? This guy got everything he desrved. What he did was like a rail employee causing a train derailment because he hates his supervisor. What about the innocent people who had investments with this company? What about the impact on the market? Sabotage is justified if you are a whiny old coot?

# 9 Mike Voice said, on December 15th, 2006 at 7:31 am

7 Look at his age and how much time he must serve,…

Don’t do the crime, if you can’t do the time.

If he has frail helth, like Kevorkian, he might get paroled early.

Otherwise: He’s a mentally-competent adult, who not only tried to screw the company – but who also wanted to gain financially from the chaos he inflicted on them.

My take: Suck it up, dirtbag!

# 10 Mr. Fusion said, on December 15th, 2006 at 8:45 am

From the article, he was a systems administrator unhappy about his salary. So presumably he had admin privileges.

The guy has to be an idiot. When something malicious happens, reasonable people would look first to who has a grudge, then who has recently quit or been fired. How did he expect to get away with it?

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