David Tinley, 62, had been hired by a US unit of Siemens, the German-based tech conglomerate, to create custom, automated spreadsheets. The company used these spreadsheets to manage orders for electrical equipment.

Tinley planted so-called "logic bombs" in the spreadsheets, the government alleged.

Logic bombs are bits of malicious code that disrupt the program when specific conditions are met, like a specific time on a specific date. Logic bombs are often used with viruses, worms, and trojan horses to time them to do maximum damage before being noticed.

When the program glitched, the company would bring Tinley back in to fix it. He fixed the system by pushing back the date the spreadsheets would stop working again. He was busted in 2016 when he was away on vacation and was forced to share with employees his passwords that protected the system's code - revealing the logic bomb.

Ways to prevent Logic Bombs

Logic bombs are sinister and hard to detect. However, you can take a few precautionary measures to avoid them.

• Use a strong antivirus and update it regularly. Antivirus scans can pick up on Trojan horses and other viruses that may hide logic bombs;
• Don’t download pirated software. Most of such software will hide viruses and logic bombs;
• If you need freeware, make sure you’re downloading it from a reputable source. Like pirated software, it might hide malicious code;
• Keep your operating system up to date. Updates are released regularly for a good reason – to patch the latest vulnerabilities;
• Practice good internet behavior – don’t click on suspicious links or email attachments;
• If you run a company, make sure you protect all computers individually. Also, train your staff. They need to know they are an integral part of your company’s cybersecurity.

Thanks for reading!

Read more about the incident here.