Nicholas Sharp, 37, who worked as a senior developer at technology company Ubiquiti from 2018 to 2021, used his authorized access to the company’s network to steal gigabytes of files and make about $2 million in cryptocurrency.
After the planned leak in December 2020, Sharp, working on the company’s internal team investigating the security breach, impersonated an anonymous hacker who allegedly confessed to the breach and demanded a ransom of 50 bitcoins (worth about $1.9 million at the time time) in exchange for returning data. When Ubiquiti refused to comply, Sharp released some of the stolen information.
The developer, prosecutors said, used the Surfshark VPN service to hide his home IP address and intentionally damaged Ubiquiti’s computer systems in an attempt to hide his unauthorized activity. On March 24, 2021, the FBI was set to search Sharpe’s home after his IP address was exposed during an internet outage and VPN shutdown. During the conversation, he denied the allegations of the attack and claimed that he did not use the Surfshark VPN service until the internal investigation in January 2021. When investigators presented evidence to Sharpe, he stated that “someone else used his PayPal account to make the purchase.”
After talking to the FBI, Sharpe anonymously contacted journalist Brian Krebs, claiming that a hacker had gained administrative access to Ubiquiti accounts, and accused the company’s lawyers of trying to cover up the leak. After the Krebs on Security articles were published, Ubiquiti’s shares fell by about 20% in a few days, and the company thus lost more than $4 billion. Ubiquiti sued Krebs last March, claiming his reporting defamed the company — the journalist later retracted the original articles.
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Nicholas Sharp has now pleaded guilty and faces a maximum penalty of 35 years in prison for intentionally damaging a protected computer, fraud and making false statements to the FBI. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for May 10, 2023.
A professional Warzone 2.0 player was accused of cheating – he tried to prove the opposite right during the tournament and… accidentally “lit up” the cheat menu
Source: The Verge
