Siemens contractor hid "logic bomb" in complicated spreadsheet, guaranteeing future maintenance work

Cory Doctorow 8:50 am Fri Jul 26, 2019

David Tinley developed complex spreadsheets under contract to Siemens, which used them to manage its equipment orders; Tinley hid "logic bombs" in the spreadsheets' scripts that caused them to malfunction every couple of years, which would gin up new work for him as he was called in to fix them.

But when Tinley got a support call while out of town, he passed the admin passwords on to Siemens IT, which discovered the scam. Tinley has pleaded guilty and faces up to 10 years in prison and up to $250,000 in fines. Other contractors who've used logic bombs to do this sort of thing have received multi-year sentences, and Zdnet says its likely Tinley will go to prison.

The spreadshees included custom scripts that would update the content of the file based on current orders stored in other, remote documents, allowing the company to automate inventory and order management.

But while Tinley's files worked for years, they started malfunctioning around 2014. According to court documents, Tinley planted so-called "logic bombs" that would trigger after a certain date, and crash the files.

Every time the scripts would crash, Siemens would call Tinley, who'd fix the files for a fee.

Siemens contractor pleads guilty to planting logic bomb in company spreadsheets [Catalin Cimpanu/Zdnet]

(via Schneier)

(Image: XKCD)

Finally revealed: identity of hacker blamed for stealing from 300+ companies and governments, in 44 countries

Unsealed court documents reveal the identity of Fxmsp, a hacker from Kazakhstan who is blamed for information theft from more than 300 companies and governments, in 44 different countries around… READ THE REST
IRS says it bought in to location database for millions of US cellphones to track tax crime suspects

The United States Internal Revenue Service says it purchased access to a marketing database that offers location data for millions of US cellphones, so the IRS can identify and track… READ THE REST
Google removes 106 malicious Chrome extensions with 32M downloads that collect browsing history and sensitive credentials

Following the discovery and prompting of a security researcher at Awake Security, Google says it has removed 106 malicious Chrome extensions that had 32 million downloads, and which were gathering… READ THE REST
Short Post, just one paragraph

Dessert cheesecake wafer bear claw fruitcake. Fruitcake chupa chups donut candy canes marzipan. Apple pie sweet roll tart chocolate cake macaroon marshmallow carrot cake gummi bears sweet. Pastry sugar plum… READ THE REST
Save 50% on a 1-year subscription to Dashlane's premium password manager

We all know vital information about ourselves and our private digital accounts can be compromised by cybercriminals. However, many would be frightened to know just how compromised they and their… READ THE REST
The Bite Helper removes the itch of a mosquito bite in seconds

While mosquitoes have certainly earned their title as the deadliest animal on earth, their impact on most of our lives is usually a lot less consequential. But even though they… READ THE REST