A tech worker who hatched an elaborate insider attack in late 2023 and attempted to extort Brightly Software for about $2.5 million was sentenced to two years in prison, the Justice Department said Thursday.
Cameron Nicholas Curry, also known as “Loot,” committed a series of crimes while working as a data analyst contractor for the Siemens-owned company. The 27-year-old North Carolina man stole a trove of corporate data, including sensitive employee and compensation information, which he used to threaten various employees and executives over a six-week period in late 2023 and early 2024.
Curry ultimately extorted the company for $7,540.92 in late January 2024. He was found guilty of six counts of extortion in March.
Brightly Software was named as the victim in court records filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of North Carolina earlier this month. The asset and maintenance management software provider, which Siemens acquired in 2022, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The insider attack illustrates risks companies accept when employees, or contractors placed in roles by a third-party recruitment company, are allowed to access sensitive data on a company-owned laptop.
Prosecutors said Curry used his access to the company’s network to remove corporate data for extortion while he worked for the company between August and December 2023. Curry started sending threatening emails to Brightly Software employees immediately following his last day of employment, and demanded a ransom to not leak and destroy the data.
Curry sent more than 60 emails, threatening to disclose the company’s payroll data, claiming it showed significant pay inequity across the workforce. In those emails, Curry framed the data theft extortion attack as an effort to implement salary transparency.
Officials said Curry included attachments with the emails containing screenshots of spreadsheets listing the personally identifiable information of company employees. He also warned the company he would provide employees instructions on how to address pay discrimination through mediation, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission or a class-action lawsuit.
Some of the extortion emails got personal, including a claim that one person on the legal team wasn’t getting a bonus while most employees in high-level positions did receive bonuses. Curry also threatened to report the breach to the Securities and Exchange Commission, citing rules that require public companies to disclose cyberattacks quickly.
The publicly traded company notified the FBI of the breach on Dec. 14, 2023 and paid less than 1% of Curry’s ransom demand almost a month later.
Authorities identified and built a case against Curry rather quickly due to multiple operational security mistakes. He used personal and verifiable data to establish a Coinbase account for the ransom, linking two debit cards belonging to his mother and sister to the account.
The FBI searched Curry’s apartment, digital devices and vehicle in Charlotte, North Carolina, weeks after the ransom was paid.
Curry faced up to 12 years in prison, but was ultimately sentenced to two years followed by one year of supervised release.
Curry’s lawyers argued that the case against him was prolonged due to prosecutors’ errors, including affidavits that falsely said Brightly Software was headquartered in Washington, D.C. The company is based in Cary, North Carolina, but Siemens U.S. corporate headquarters is based in Washington, and prosecutors identified the previously unnamed victim company as the subsidiary of an international parent company.
The location discrepancy resulted in a change in venue for the trial and, Curry’s lawyers argued, imposed an unnecessarily lengthy pretrial restraint of almost 31 months on Curry, including 17 months of full home confinement.