O
n July 19, 2019, contract programmer
David Tinley pleaded guilty to charges
that he intentionally damaged computers
belonging to Siemens Corporation. According to
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the code he was developing for Siemens at its
Monroeville, Pennsylvania location. Those logic
bombs, sections of code timed to create a
disruption weeks or months after a project was
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problems that were assumed to be bugs—but that
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problem, Tinsley simply changed the date on the
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Eventually, another programmer was called in to
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vacation—and the plot was uncovered.
Tinsley had been working for Siemens for about
12 years before he was caught, but during that
time, he was never under any suspicion.
Sentencing is set for November 8, 2019, and
Tinsley could spend up to 10 years in prison and
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Wayne Rash
Protect Your Business
During Custom Coding
Projects
Wayne Rash is a
freelance writer and
frequent reviewer of
enterprise hardware
and software. He is
also a senior
columnist for eWEEK.
Email him at wayne@
rash.org.
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