A Harrison City man pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District court to sabotaging Siemens’ computers in a bid to drum up extra contracting work.
David Tinley, 62, pleaded to one count before District Judge Peter J. Phipps.
Tinley, a contract employee for Siemens’ Monroeville location, was charged with intentionally inserting “logic bombs” into programs he designed for the company.
A “logic bomb” is a piece of computer code inserted into a software system that sets off a malicious function when certain conditions are met.
Below, a video from the Professor Messer channel on YouTube explains how a logic bomb works.
In Tinley’s case, prosecutors said, the logic bombs would “ensure that the programs would malfunction after the expiration of a certain date. As a result, Siemens was unaware of the cause of the malfunction and required Tinley to fix (it).”
Prosecutors said Tinley inserted logic bombs into work he performed for Siemens between 2014 and spring 2016.
He is scheduled for sentencing on Nov. 8, and faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000.
