A 55-year-old man in Texas has been found guilty of deliberately damaging protected computers owned by his former employer, Eaton Corp. Davis Lu created malicious software that disrupted the company’s systems through a ‘kill switch’, which was designed to activate in the event of his job termination.

The US Department of Justice has disclosed that Lu faces a potential maximum sentence of ten years in prison. He had been part of Eaton Corp’s workforce for 11 years before corporate changes in 2018 narrowed his responsibilities, leading him to initiate sabotage against the network subsequently.

The harmful programs Lu crafted included infinite loops that erased colleague’s profile files, inhibiting staff logins and causing widespread system failures, thereby decreasing the company’s productivity. He labeled these destructive software elements ‘Hakai’ (Japanese for destruction) and ‘HunShui’ (Chinese for lethargy).

The ultimate act of sabotage was a device labeled ‘IsDLEnabledinAD’. This code was intended to activate upon his dismissal and, on September 9, 2019, it was triggered, affecting thousands of users and resulting in substantial financial losses for Eaton Corp.

Lu’s actions were uncovered by other engineers who were attempting to diagnose the system crashes he had orchestrated. The malicious code was executed using Lu’s user ID from a server that only he had access to, containing various harmful scripts, including those that activated the kill switch.

After being asked to return company property, Lu attempted to erase encrypted files and critical project data from his work computer. When interviewed by authorities, he admitted to creating the malicious code.

The sentencing date for Lu is yet to be confirmed.