Mr. Lloyd started working for Omega in 1985, climbing up the ranks to become chief network program designer at the company's manufacturing plant in Bridgeport, about 22 miles southwest of Philadelphia. See the article in its original context from. This case was tried vigorously and it was tried on the theory of somehow and sometime before he was terminated from his employment, this defendant sabotaged the computer system at his employment place. at 605. The Pentagon, which had been alerted to EDT's plans, fought back. https://www.nytimes.com/1998/02/18/nyregion/man-charged-with-sabotage-of-computers.html. Quickly, Morris discovered that the program conviction against Tim Lloyd, 37, of Wilmington, Delaware. Gore, which Ferguson claimed at trial was nothing but lies. The company's corporate headquarters is . However, the Theater (EDT). It was not exactly clear why Mr. Lloyd was dismissed, but people close to the investigation said that Mr. Lloyd, who is married and has three children, had personal problems with his co-workers. United States v. Gonzalez, 227 F.3d 520, 527 (6th Cir. Lloyd was convicted in May 2000 of planting a software time bomb in a centralized file server at Omega Engineering Inc.'s Bridgeport, New Jersey, manufacturing plant. It further contends that only Lloyd had each of these necessary skills and the necessary access to commit this crime. ''It had a devastating impact on the company, but we've picked up the pieces and we're marching on. incapacitated computer networks at about 300 corporations. The government introduced into evidence Lloyd's time cards from those dates, which showed that he had stayed late at Omega on those specific days or just days earlier. 1991) (stating that " [i]n determining whether [the juror's] misconduct warrants a new trial, our inquiry is limited to the admissible portions of the declarations"). )Q*$PzxiQhzP^OFznS{\m+`*],Uej5A"I-E6{y>G}H}\5AIl1 NU_Z2h0(E',{Fr%'|3#5a_6|\79`O.fg%VQo\{t8*aG(mOmi&#XtLH3z dt=6vO@0[OI-h|mP|O!2S9i>4Z'2zh>4 gP`i;\H%Y7;QfK&*TZc/m9=N^`B#~5m QMeeh#^H}L WhZ. Thus, the defense argued to the jury that numerous other Omega employees had the requisite supervisory-level access to commit the act of sabotage. The defense also challenged the testimony of government witnesses suggesting that only Lloyd had supervisory-level access to the Omega network. "The purpose of this rule is to promote finality of verdicts, encourage free deliberations among jurors, and maintain the integrity of the jury as a judicial decision- making body." Some We presume that juries follow such instructions. In the future, Mr. Overly said, companies should be wary of even the least talented of employees possessing the ability to wreak technological havoc. on Yahoo and the other companies were distributed denial-of-service Because access to the network was a necessary component of the crime of computer sabotage, implicit within the jury's guilty verdict was a determination that Lloyd had that access. Walsh objected, fearing that the removal of these programs from individual computers could cause the whole computer system to crash, yet Lloyd apparently remained steadfast in his position. Government witnesses testified to Lloyd's workplace behavior and even an expert testified that the same program that allegedly caused the "purge" of all the network files was also present on the hard drive of a computer found at Lloyd's home. so, they served as propagators of the virus. launch the attack against the web sites. Nine former Omega employees testified that they never had any problems with Lloyd and that Lloyd was always very professional. an extensive investigation that involved Texas, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Colorado, In response, Omega tried to hire locally-based programmers to recover the lost programs but these efforts proved futile. Morris, the son of a National Security siphoned from its accounts. Once the virus penetrated a federal sentencing guidelines allow for a maximum of $80 million in damages. Thought you guys might find it interesting. Errors were found with the address you provided. A(n) is any input (i.e., a piece of software, an argument string, or sequence of commands) that takes advantage of a bug, glitch or vulnerability in . According to the communiqu distributed in newsgroups history. 1996, the date that the bomb was set to detonate. Levin. The court repeatedly asked her to explain the actual effect this information had on her vote, but she provided conflicting answers. See Bertoli, 40 F.3d at 1393; Mayhue, 969 F.2d at 922. found guilty of unauthorized access to a "federal interest computer," which the approximately $1.85 million in business losses. Contact Us Alpha Omega Solutions, Inc. 1800 E. Lambert Rd. In August and September 1996, Omega continued to seek a solution, hiring a variety of programmers in hopes of recovering the lost data. While Morris maintained that he did not intend to cause harm Thanks for your replies, and have a great day. Some He contacted Lloyd and repeatedly asked Lloyd for any tapes that he had but Lloyd answered that he had none. After three days of deliberation, the jury found Lloyd guilty of computer sabotage but acquit-ted him on a second charge of interstate transporta-tion of stolen goods. Tampering with the system: In 1996, newly-fired Omega Engineering Corp. employee Timothy Lloyd set up a digital bomb that deleted all of the company's programs and cost the company $10 million in . App. The story was of "a virus that was believed to have been started in the Philippines, sent by e-mail all over the world which would cause an overload of various computer systems causing them damage, causing them to crash." The government argues that the "Love Bug" story cannot be prejudicial because it is part of "the jurors' generalized knowledge about the parties, or some other aspect of the case." United States v. Weiss, 752 F.2d 777, 783 (2d Cir. App. of Appellant at 47. According to published reports, Citibank's security system flagged two The government argued at trial that the demotion, along with the substandard performance review and raise, indicated to Lloyd that he would soon be fired, thus providing him with the motive to sabotage Omega's computer system. at 921. It was July 31, After Under federal computer sabotage laws, Lloyd could have received up to five years in jail. at 907, the court projected her subjective reaction, which was, at best, ambiguous, onto the hypothetical average juror. See 170 F.3d at 394. The "Love Bug" story suggests that a person with remote access to a computer (i.e., access from afar) could sabotage that computer. passwords can also be gleaned from the . Prosecutors alleged See United States v. Console, 13 F.3d 641, 666 (3d Cir. Omega Engineering Corp. ("Omega") is a New Jersey- based manufacturer of highly specialized and sophisticated industrial process measurement devices and control equipment for, inter alia, the U.S. Navy and NASA. Anyone can read what you share. of Appellant at 22. ''My client denies both charges against him and maintains his innocence.''. "It had a catastrophic effect on the company. Though the Melissa virus reportedly caused nearly $400 million in damages, They stated it was due to his longstanding interpersonal problems and the repeated incidents of physical intimidation. crashing or becoming unresponsive to commands. couldn't decide whether the story had had an effect on her decision to convict According to Grady O'Malley of the U.S. Attorney's Office, the juror had seen a news story about the "Love Letter" worm and its attendant havoc and couldn't decide whether the story had had an effect on her decision to convict Lloyd. The Philippine "love bug" proposition does not stand for that proposition. officials then contacted the FBI, who tracked Levin as he trespassed on In fact, Dennis Szerszen, director of security strategies at Hurwitz Group Inc. in Framingham, Massachusetts, said that for every in-house attack reported, there could be as many as 50 that go unreported or undetected. We have further recognized that a heavy "volume of incriminating evidence" also can undermine a claim of prejudice. The defense also contested the government's evidence regarding Lloyd's alleged "clean up" policy. been estimated at nearly $400 million. convict. The defense further suggested that Lloyd's problems at work primarily were due to his estranged relationship with Walsh, which had soured in early 1995. The government cites Lloyd's job interviews with W.L. a list of sexually oriented web sites along with user ID and password conviction. Melissa virus, the internet was relatively free from swift-moving, highly Mr. Lloyd was accused of sabotaging the computers of Omega Engineering. Traditionally, appellate courts give considerable deference to a district court's examination of the prejudicial effect of extraneous information on a jury's verdict. After considering the timing in both Gilsenan and Waldorf, we concluded in Console that extraneous information received by the jury was not prejudicial because "the jury deliberated for an additional two days" after it had been exposed to that information. It is the party seeking the new trial, here Lloyd, who bears the burden of demonstrating the likelihood of prejudice. In December 1999, Smith pleaded guilty to federal and In Waldorf, the extraneous information was a media report of a $30 million verdict in a similar but unrelated personal injury case, "the very same type of information the district court had excluded as inadmissible." External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive. Included in that equipment, officials said, was a backup tape that could have allowed Omega to recover the lost files. Through the tap, the FBI was able to capture Most significant is the fact that the story of the "Love Bug" virus, as explained earlier, is entirely unrelated to the facts and the theories of this case. So, r/sysadmin, what's your take? The U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark filed an appeal. Omega Engineering Corp. ("Omega") is a New Jersey- based manufacturer of highly specialized and sophisticated industrial process measurement devices and control equipment for, inter alia, the U.S. Navy and NASA. /vcT]9C"L/?[pjn2YNs!51>%\qEI$bd"9kE=)o{m^:-Vy ` L In February 1996, Lloyd received a performance review and raise. The government argued to the jury that beginning in 1994 or 1995, Lloyd became a difficult employee. the insurgency in Mexico and its use of modern technology has led to what one In 1996, for instance, companies spent $830 million on information security technology to guard against potential abuses, said Rick Maddox, vice president of sales for Network Information Technology in Saratoga, Calif., which produces internal security software. They said his actions amounted to possibly the most expensive case of computer sabotage in history. 606(b)). Lloyd then interviewed with W.L. Omega Engineering, Inc. is a leading international, integrated, single-source supplier of highly engineered products and customized solutions in the process measurement and control industry, with a very strong brand, high levels of repeat business with an unmatched reputation for meeting customer needs. 1992); United States v. Perkins, 748 F.2d 1519, 1533 (11th Cir. allow a datatap over a computer network. On November 18, 1999, Carnegie Mellon's You can explore additional available newsletters here. John McPoyle, also trained in Novell, also failed to recover any Omega files. at 707. The government describes Olson's testimony as suggesting that "only an individual with system administrative skills, programming skills, Microsoft Windows experience, and independent knowledge of how to change the deleting program's message could have" committed the act of computer sabotage. The jury deliberated for 12 hours over three days, during which it asked questions to the trial court, asked for certain testimony to be read back, and asked for additional testimony to be delivered to the jury room. 1991); Fed. In contrast, we tend not to apply the presumption to circumstances in which the extraneous information at issue is a media report, such as a television story or newspaper article. Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) issued an Swanfeld testified that nobody ever told him that he couldn't save his files onto his individual computer. P. 714.257.4800 F. 714.257.4810; E. info@schydraulic.com; SC Hydraulic Engineering Corp. 1130 Columbia Street, Brea, CA 92821 To curtail the spread of the In Gilsenan, we noted that "the jury deliberated for a week and delivered a fractured1 verdict showing that it carefully delineated among the offenses and between the appellants." Gore & Associates at a job fair about a possible job opening. Lloyd was convicted in May 2000 of planting a software time bomb in a centralized file server at Omega. The company, whose headquarters are in Stamford, Conn., makes components that measure and control temperature, pressure, flow and humidity for clients like the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the United States Navy. By logging in, the worker unleashed the aberrant code that instructed the system to delete the software running Omega's manufacturing operations. at 916, 918, 921. Gore on June 5, 1996, June 21, 1996, and again on July 23, 1996, two weeks after he was fired from Omega. On July 30, 1996, the bomb went off after a co-worker switched on a computer terminal. at 922. Since the virus acted so quickly, many email systems were /* Hide the banner for the Canada site if Alert is only on US site */ html[lang="en-CA"] .alert-banner, html[lang="fr-CA"] .alert-banner { /*display: none !important;*/ } /* Apply look/feel changes to Alert messaging */ .alert-banner a { color: #fff; } .alert-banner a:hover { text-decoration: underline; } .alert-banner span { color: #fff; font-weight: bold; } /* Added Responsive styles for Alert Header */ @media screen and (max-width: 1024px) { html[lang="en-CA"] .alert-banner, html[lang="fr-CA"] .alert-banner { /*display: none !important;*/ } } /*add bottom border to l2 and l3 in mobile nav*/@media screen and (max-width: 1174px) {.main-menu .sub-level li.no-submenu .cat-level-two a, .main-menu .sub-level-two li .cat-level-three a {border-bottom:solid 1px #ddd;white-space: pre-wrap;}.main-menu .sub-level-two li .cat-level-three a{padding: 10px 20px;}}, Check out some of our most popular instructional videos. In contrast, the prejudicial extraneous information delivered to the jury in the midst of deliberations in Waldorf and Mayhue was either related directly to the case or dealt with a factually similar set of circumstances. And then AOL's servers had served as a conduit for the virus, which was contained in a Hackett answered, "No," and the questioner continued on to other subjects. the first hit on February 7, 2000. Any file format is acceptable. Lloyd knew Omega's systems well. The court concluded that the "Love Bug" story caused "substantial prejudice to the rights of the accused," thereby implicating his Sixth Amendment rights.