178: Ubiquiti
Summary
This episode details how Nicholas Sharp, a cloud engineer at Ubiquiti, stole source code and extorted his own company for $2 million in Bitcoin. Feeling underappreciated, Sharp staged a ransom attack to prove security flaws, but his scheme failed when Ubiquiti refused to pay. He then leaked the data and contacted journalists, causing Ubiquiti’s stock to crash by 20%. Sharp was eventually arrested, pleaded guilty to wire fraud, and sentenced to six years in prison.
Topics discussed
Sponsor: Datadog security solutions
Confession: Stealing sandwiches from the office fridge
Sponsors: ThreatLocker and Drada
Nick Sharp's career at Ubiquiti and AWS
Nick's frustration with company security and wealth gap
Planning the self-inflicted cyber attack
Executing the hack: Accessing GitHub via VPN
Downloading source code and technical hiccups
Sponsor: Material Security
Covering tracks and being called to investigate
The ransom note and public data exposure
FBI investigation and digital forensics
Whistleblower story to Brian Krebs
Legal consequences and guilty plea
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