NEW YORK (Reuters) - A former UBS PaineWebber (UBSN.VX) employee was sentenced to eight years in prison on Wednesday for planting a computer "logic bomb" on company networks and betting its stock would go down. The investment scheme backfired when UBS stock remained stable after the computer attack and Roger Duronio lost more than $23,000. A federal judge in New Jersey sentenced Duronio, 64, to 97 months in prison and ordered him to make $3.1 million in restitution to his former employer, the U.S. attorney's office said in a statement. Duronio was convicted on July 19 of one count of securities fraud and one count of computer fraud in the 2002 case. Duronio quit his job as a systems administrator in February 2002 after repeatedly expressing dissatisfaction about his salary and bonuses, the statement said. He then planted malicious computer code known as a "logic bomb" in about 1,000 of PaineWebber's approximately 1,500 networked computers in branch offices. On March 4, 2002, the "bomb" detonated and began deleting files. Duronio attempted to profit from the attack, the statement said. He bought more than $23,000 in put option contracts for UBS AG stock, betting the stock's price would go down after his "logic bomb" went off. But, according to testimony at his trial, the stock remained stable after the computer attack and Duronio lost all of his investment.
he could have shorted outright. too risky to leverage puts if u dont have info like incoming 9/11 attacks, R0R. look at brit air after the attack scare, stock tumble and closed at the highs...only to make new highs for the yr and now is up something liike 60% yr to date..maybe more.
Well, maybe he would have stayed "whole" by shorting the calls...abeit with much less profit potential An interesting point here is that IT and back office staff may NOT be getting their just rewards here compared to the M&A, IB's, and high profile traders at the large firms.
This guy was out of his depth as a Software Engineer... And couldn't keep his mouth shut. The fact that a 64 year old man has only $20,000... Tells you all you need to know about this loser. But in the real world... in cyberspace... Denial of service attacks by armies of bots... Hired ** on a contract basis ** are a reality... And I'm sure there are tried and true ways to turn a DOS attack into cash. Read this... "Attack of the Bots": http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.11/botnet.html
He should have hung around here, where a few clowns pumped MNCS. That would have been a better short. You want a good laugh , take a look at that hustle and check out who was pumping it.
If he had programed his logic bomb to webcast every byte of secret information that the bank has... Placing the whole database on the internet... that would've make a much nicer short...
what a dumbass. if he were a smart criminal, he would have hacked into the accounting database and see if the company was going to beat or miss earnings. it would still be illegal, but at least he would have made money.