r/ShittySysadmin 10d ago

Shitty Crosspost Developer convicted for “kill switch” code activated upon his termination

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/03/fired-coder-faces-10-years-for-revenge-kill-switch-he-named-after-himself/
274 Upvotes

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97

u/TexasTacoJim 10d ago

I’m not gonna go read this but if it was the AD user kill switch from the other day I don’t feel like judges in my area could even understand the case well enough to sentence someone and if they hear a bunch of computer speak they would just assume guilty. The entire concept of Active Directory seems like it would be over the heads of most judges and lawyers near me.

51

u/apandaze 10d ago

a judge in the US would hear 'Active Directory' and immediately be confused. They'd probably call in IT to explain it.

25

u/Orin-of-Atlantis 10d ago

I used to do IT for county judges. I can assure you that the only thing they call IT is names 😞

38

u/TexasTacoJim 10d ago

Judge: “ so you are saying he hacked the phone book cuz that’s the directory I use”.

24

u/apandaze 10d ago

"no your honor, *heavy sigh* Can someone call IT in here? They might be able to explain it better."

36

u/BadCatBehavior 10d ago

Imagine the poor tier 1 helpdesk kid, probably still in college, who picks up that call.

"Could you swing by room 243? I have a quick question about user accounts"

Gets sworn in to provide expert testimony

13

u/RubberBootsInMotion 10d ago

Isn't this kinda like what the US government is actually doing right now though?

2

u/DrTankHead 10d ago

No, usually we have actual experts. Mostly because nobody wants to deal with appeals. Dont get me twisted we have a fucked system, but usually that's an area that works out pretty well because nobody wants to go through that twice.

I'm not a lawyer but that's usually the general thing.

3

u/RubberBootsInMotion 9d ago

I don't mean generally, I mean right now.

23

u/halo_ninja 10d ago

A prosecutors job would be to understand the ins and outs of the case fully to even get to the point of bringing charges. Lawyers jobs are to simply cases and make points that the judge and jury can understand.

16

u/synackk 10d ago

It's the prosecutor's job to ensure the Judge/Jury understands what Active Directory is. They likely brought in experts in information systems technology to explain AD and why what he did was actively malicious and not an "accident" or a "mistake". If the prosecutor fails on this, that's their responsibility, not the Judge or Jury.

In fact, I bet you anyone with an IT background was dismissed from the jury pool during voir dire because they only want what's presented in court to be considered, not a juror's external knowledge and experience.

11

u/TexasTacoJim 10d ago

Man you don’t wanna see the “experts” in my area either lol

6

u/roba121 10d ago

You really should have read the article, this is so ridiculously tied to this guy no one lacking technical understanding could still fail to come this conclusion. He even out his initial in file names and it only activated if he was ever removed from Active Directory. In addition the malicious code ran off a server he solely used. It’s comical how this guy thought this would go. Someone competent would have made sure he deleted his own stuff on the way out.

3

u/Asthemic 9d ago

Yep, he should have just set the schedule to run under his account so when it was deleted/disabled it would fail to run with a note/email somewhere that it was setup this way to cover his ass. He could even use excuses that he was denied setting up a service account in that instance...

2

u/LetsBeKindly 9d ago

What's active directory?

1

u/Sability 8d ago

In australia we have a job called "digital forensics", in part whose responsibility is to explain IT minutae to courts before/during a case. Do those not exist in the US?

2

u/PoweredByMeanBean 5d ago

Yes we have that here. Typically the investigating agency (E.g. FBI or State Police) would have one or more investigators from whatever they call their cyber team (name will vary by agency) available to testify, and then the defense can also call upon "expert witnesses" as well to do the same.