A Russian man was sentenced on Monday to the equivalent of the time he was already in prison under U.S. government control, and a Tesla employee to install computer malware in the company’s Nevada battery factory to steal company secrets. Will be deported after pleading guilty to trying to pay $ 500,000 for the ransom.
Egor Igorevich Kriuchkov, 27, appeared before the court by videoconference from his holding cell. He apologized to the US District Judge Miranda Du in Reno who acknowledged that the attempted hack was not successful and the company network was not compromised.
“I’m sorry for my decision. I regret it,” Kriuchkov communicated with the help of a Russian-language court interpreter. Kriuchkov has reportedly been in US custody for the last nine months. He said that the time he spent in custody has made him reflect on the pain and suffering he has inflicted on his family in Russia and the irreversible damage that the incident has caused to his reputation
Mr Kryutkov said he was made to think about the pain he caused to his family in Russia and the damage done to his reputation during the nine months he was under US federal control. Some families sent an email message to the judge asking for generosity.
“I understand it was a bad decision,” Kriuchkov said. Kriuchkov can face up to five years in prison and a $ 250,000 fine.The judge, who agreed not to use the company name in court, agreed to a judicial transaction between the prosecutor and Krytkov.
He was sentenced to 10 months in prison in March for denying a conspiracy to deliberately damage a protected computer. Pay approximately $ 14,825 in damages for company time to investigate intrusion attempts and hand over the case to the FBI. Three years of federal supervision if he stays in the United States or returns from abroad. He will continue to be detained until he leaves the country.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk admitted that Musk had been the target of serious efforts to collect company secrets after Kluitikov was arrested in Los Angeles in August. Federal officials said Kryuchkov was heading to the airport to fly abroad.
Tesla has a large factory near Reno that manufactures batteries for electric vehicles and energy storage units. Company officials did not immediately respond to the message on Monday.The judge claims that Kryutikov has provided $ 500,000 to pay unidentified employees. She did not mention previous reports that bribes reached $ 1 million.Federal officials acknowledged the employee’s achievements by reporting Kriuchkov’s offer to company officials.
This hack was designed as a decentralized denial of service attack that uses junk data to flood the Tesla computer system. With the second intrusion, the conspirators demand a ransom with the threat of extracting data from the company’s network and disclosing the information. ..
Other suspicious conspirators are identified in court documents by nickname and refer to at least one other failed effort to target another unidentified company. Kriuchkov told the judge in September that he knew the Kremlin knew of his case, but the prosecutor and the FBI had never claimed a relationship with the Kremlin.
“There is no doubt that the crime is serious,” Du said, citing concerns about “this kind of cyber ransom crime” in the United States and other countries. “Fortunately, this plan was unsuccessful,” she said
