In December 2006 , an ex - employee of the fiscal society UBS PaineWebber was sentence to eight yr in prison and more than $ 3 million in damages for institute a system of logic bomb in UBS’scomputer networkin 2002 . When the bomb went off , 1,000computerslost critical files as the code started delete data . The reportedly disgruntled employee , Roger Duronio , had counted on this causing the company’sstockprice to deteriorate . He invested $ 23,000 in put option declaration , mean he would ’ve earned money from a hit to UBS inventory . The pedigree price did n’t budge after the attack . Duronio ’s logic bomb only pull in him jail metre and more money in payback than he could ever afford .

A logic bomb , also calledslag codebecause all that ’s left after it detonates is computer slag , is not the same affair as avirus , although it often acquit in a interchangeable personal manner . It is a piece of computer code that executes a malicious project , such as clearing ahard driveor delete specific file , when it istriggeredby a specific event . It ’s secretly inserted into the codification of a estimator ’s existing software , where it liesdormantuntil that event occurs . This event might be a positive initiation , such as a specific date and clock time or the remotion of an employee ’s name from the salary database ; or it might be a negative trigger , such as a special employee failing to input a command by a sure clip – meaning he or she is probably not at the ship’s company anymore . electronegative initiation are see to be more life-threatening than positive ones , since the peril of accidentally triggering the bomb – say , if the employee is suddenly hospitalized with appendicitis – increases dramatically . And when the bomb goes off , the damage is done – files are delete , secret information is sent to the wrong people , the meshwork is halting for days …

The payload of a logical system bomb is normally pretty annihilative to the troupe under tone-beginning . It ’s often a puppet used by angry employee – in the IT world , it has a report of being link with " dissatisfied employee syndrome . " And a dissatisfied employee probably would n’t get too much satisfaction from making a smiley aspect show up on every networked computer at 3:14 p.m. on a specific Tuesday . A logic bomb does n’t have much use outside of point a specific electronic computer or web , and IT employee are usually the only I with the access and know - how to implement them . Logic bombs are n’t usually programmed to spread to unknown recipient , although there are some virus types that are considered logic bombs because they have a time - and - date gun trigger . And some virus have a logic dud plant in them that carry out a payload in improver to the virus ’s replicating function . For the most part , though , a logical system bomb stay put within the web in which it was insert . This makes it much easier to make than a virus . All it ask to do is fulfil a labor ; it does n’t need to reproduce , which is a more complicated role .

To deflect missing the insertion of a logic bomb calorimeter into a web , most IT expert advocate perpetual monitoring , using computer virus computer software and other scan programs intended to piece up on new object in a computer ’s data , not only of overall networks but also of each individual computer on a net .

The type of natural process carried out in a system of logic bomb does have a non - destructive use : It get to trammel , loose software trials possible . After a sure time period of time , a piece of code engraft in the software ’s codification induce the free software system to disappear or become halting so the user needs to pay to continue to use it . But since this is a non - malicious , drug user - vaporous use of the computer code , it ’s not typically referred to as a logical system turkey .

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