An act of vengeance has led an Indian national to be arrested and sentenced to 2 years in US prison, accompanied by a hefty sum of remuneration.
Deepanshu Kher has been convicted by a US court in California, on account of hacking the company’s server where he used to work and deleting over 1200 Microsoft user accounts.
A US District Court Judge Marilyn Huff has noted that the reason for perpetration has been an intention of revenge, on being fired from the IT consulting firm Kher was working in.
Here are complete details on the whole case.
The Reason Behind the Hack
According to the documents provided by the district court, Deepanshu Kher was employed by an information technology consulting firm in 2017, until May 2018.
In 2017, this consulting firm was hired by the Carlsbad Company to help in the successful migration to a Microsoft Office 365 (MS O365) environment.
The company sent Kher to Carlsbad headquarters to assist with the smooth migration process.
However, the company states that it was unhappy with Kher’s performance in the transition and in January 2018, decided to invite him back from the Carlsbad headquarters.
On May 4, 2018, the company fired Kher and he returned to Delhi a month later in June.
Indian Techie Deletes Over 1200 MS Accounts
According to federal prosecutors, two month after his arrival in India, Kher hacked into the Carlsbad Company’s server and deleted over 1200 of the 1500 MS O365 user accounts.
This led to the company to shut down completely for two days and according to the company’s VP, ‘the impact was felt inside and outside the company’.
Due to account deletion, the employees could not access their emails, contacts lists, meeting schedules, corporate directories, obstructing them from performing their jobs.
Kher was arrested in the US on January 11, 2021, when he flew in from India, oblivious of the arrest warrant waiting for him.
While announcing him guilty, US District Court Judge Marilyn Huff stated that Kher’s attack on the company was planned and clearly intended as revenge.
Judge Huff not only sentenced Kher to 2 years of prison in the US but also to three years’ supervised release and restitution to the Company of USD 567,084, the amount that the Company had to incur to fix the problems caused by Kher.
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.