178: Ubiquiti
Summary
This episode details how Nicholas Sharp, a cloud engineer at Ubiquiti, stole company data and extorted his employer for $2 million to force security improvements. After the scheme failed and Ubiquiti refused to pay, Sharp leaked the breach to a journalist, causing a massive stock drop. He was eventually arrested, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and computer damage, and received a six-year prison sentence.
Topics discussed
Sponsor: NetSuite Next
Intro: Stealing food from office fridges
Sponsor: ThreatLocker
Sponsor: Drada
Nick's background and frustrations at Ubiquiti
Context: Recent ransomware attacks on CWT and Garmin
Nick's plan to hack his own company
Executing the data exfiltration from GitHub
Sponsor: Material Security
Covering tracks and the ransom note demand
The failed extortion and Keybase takedown
Ubiquiti's investigation and FBI raid
Whistleblower article, arrest, and sentencing
Outro and credits
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