Software Developer Arrested in Computer Sabotage Case

A software developer has been arrested and faces charges for allegedly placing malicious code on his employer's computer servers, the Justice Department reports.

A federal grand jury in Cleveland returned an indictment charging Davis Lu, 51, of Houston, Texas, with one count of damaging protected computers.

Officials say Lu was employed as a senior developer with an unnamed company based in Cleveland. In August 2019, the company was the victim of a denial of service (DoS) attack when production servers crashed and employees were unable to access the servers. The indictment says an investigation found unauthorized code installed on the server, which caused that server to create an infinite loop and crash.

Lu was asked to return his company-issued computer. Officials say before he did, he deleted encrypted volumes and attempted to delete Linux directories as well as two additional projects. He also allegedly searched the Internet for information on how to escalate privileges, hide processes, and delete large folders and/or files.

The company says it suffered a loss of at least $5,000. Lu has not yet entered a plea.

The Department of Justice statement can be read here.