An ex-employee of Ubiquiti, a network technology provider, admitted guilt on Thursday to multiple criminal charges. The individual pretended to be an anonymous hacker and attempted to extort nearly $2 million worth of cryptocurrency while employed at the company.
Nickolas Sharp, 37, was a senior developer at Ubiquiti from 2018 to 2021. He utilized his privileged access to the company’s network to steal massive amounts of data in a deliberate security breach in December 2020.
Prosecutors stated that Sharp used Surfshark VPN to conceal his home IP and deliberately damaged Ubiquiti’s computer systems during the attack in an effort to cover up his unauthorized actions. Afterward, he pretended to be an anonymous hacker and claimed responsibility for the incident while serving on an internal team tasked with investigating the security breach.
The FBI launched an investigation into Sharp’s residence on March 24th, 2021, after a temporary internet disruption revealed Sharp’s IP address during the security breach.
Sharp deceived FBI investigators by denying his involvement in the incident and asserting that he had not used Surfshark VPN before the internal investigation in January 2021. However, when confronted with proof that he had purchased the VPN service in July 2020 through his PayPal account, he claimed that “someone else must have made the purchase.”
Sharp now faces a potential sentence of up to 35 years in prison for charges of intentionally damaging a protected computer, wire fraud, and lying to the FBI. His sentencing hearing has been set for May 10th, 2023.
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