OHIO – A man who wanted to disrupt a business’ operations through its computer system by causing damage was indicted, officials said.
A federal indictment was unsealed Friday charging Arturas Samoilovas, age 35, of Stow, Ohio, with one count of transmitting and attempting to transmit computer codes, programs or commands, intending to cause damage to a protected computer, said officials.
“This defendant sought to disrupt a company’s operations through its computer system,” U.S. Attorney Steven Dettelbach said. “Cyber security is a priority for our office, to protect both our national security and the companies and employers in our district.”
FBI agent Stephen Anthony said: “If activated, his placement of malicious software, also known as ‘malware’, would have caused significant damage to Eaton Corporation’s internal computer network.”
Samoilovas was employed at Eaton Corporation as a contract employee between November 2013 and May 21, 2014, where he worked as a financial analyst.
Samoilovas applied for several other positions at Eaton prior to the expiration of his temporary employment contract, but was not selected, according to the indictment.
On May 21, 2014, Samoilovas accessed the Eaton Corporation computer system and inserted certain malicious computer codes, programs or instructions which would delete files or data from the Eaton Corporation computer system.
The malicious code was discovered after Samoilovas contacted a former co-worker on May 23, 2014, and disclosed the existence of the malicious code, according to the indictment.
Samoilovas is presumed innocent until proven guilty.