A former core infrastructure engineer has been sentenced to 32 months in prison for locking more than 3,000 devices on his employer's network. The attack was described as ransomware-style, though the engineer was not an external cybercriminal but an insider with deep access to the company's systems.
The incident took place at an industrial company based in New Jersey. The engineer's position as a core infrastructure engineer likely gave him the access needed to carry out the attack, which disrupted operations by locking a large number of devices across the network.
The sentencing highlights the risk posed by insider threats, particularly from employees with privileged access to critical systems. While ransomware attacks are often associated with external actors, this case shows that trusted insiders can cause similar damage.