Deepanshu Kher, Deleting Corporate Microsoft Accounts, California 2021

Deepanshu Kher, a former information technology contractor, was sentenced to two years in prison for deleting over 1,200 Microsoft user accounts from a Carlsbad company’s server.

According to court documents, Kher worked for an IT consulting firm from 2017 through May 2018. In January 2018, the company was dissatisfied with Kher’s work and relayed their dissatisfaction to the consulting firm. A few months later, on May 4, 2018, the firm fired Kher, and a month after that, in June 2018, Kher returned to Delhi, India.

On August 8, 2018, two months after his return to India, Kher hacked into the Carlsbad company’s server and deleted over 1,200 of its 1,500 Microsoft Office 365 user accounts. The attack affected the bulk of the company’s employees and completely shut down the company for two days.

The company’s Vice President of Information Technology explained that the impact was felt inside and outside the company. Employees’ accounts were deleted – they could not access their email, contacts lists, meeting calendars, documents, corporate directories, video and audio conferences, and Virtual Teams environment necessary for them to perform their jobs. Outside the company, customers, vendors and consumers were unable to reach company employees (and the employees were unable to reach them).

Unfortunately, even after those two days, the problems remained. Employees were not receiving meeting invites or cancellations, employees’ contacts lists could not be completely rebuilt, and affected employees could no longer access folders to which they previously had access. The Carlsbad company repeatedly handled multitudes of IT problems for three months.

In pronouncing the sentence, U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn L. Huff noted that Kher perpetrated a significant and sophisticated attack on the company, an attack which was planned and clearly intended as revenge. In addition to the two years in custody, Judge Huff sentenced Kher to three years’ supervised release and restitution to the company of $567,084, the amount that the company paid to fix the problems which Kher caused.

Kher, an Indian national, was arrested when he flew from India to the United States on January 11, 2021, unaware of the outstanding warrant for his arrest. This act of sabotage was destructive for this company, said Acting U.S. Attorney Randy Grossman. Fortunately, the defendant’s revenge was short-lived and justice has been delivered.

Related Federal Cases