Software "time bomber" goes to prison
The perpetrator of sabotage that deleted programs on his former employer's computer network is sentenced to 41 months in prison.
Timothy Allen Lloyd, 39, was sentenced to prison Wednesday for concocting a computer "time bomb" that deleted programs on his former employer's computer network 20 days after he left high-tech measurement company Omega Engineering.
Lloyd lost his job at Omega on July 10, 1996, after a 10-year stint with the company. On July 30, he activated a "time bomb" that destroyed Omega's manufacturing software programs.
A jury in a Newark, N.J., federal court convicted Lloyd in May 2000 of one count of causing irreparable damage to Omega. Prosecutors said Lloyd's actions cost the company $10 million.
The conviction was set aside in July after a juror said she may have been affected by publicity surrounding a high-profile virus that was released in May. However, an appeals court reinstated the conviction last October.
Lloyd's attorney did not immediately return requests for comment.