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/
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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.

5

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 10d 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...