Business
Ex-Medco employee accused of planting computer "bomb"
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted Jan. 15, 2007
A federal grand jury has levied fraud charges against a former systems administrator at Medco Health Solutions, the nation's largest pharmacy-benefits manager. The grand jury indicted Yung-Hsun Lin, 50, saying he developed a "logic bomb" in the company's computer system that could have eliminated prescription records, including information on potential troublesome drug interactions, for up to 60 million Americans.
Medco fired Lin in 2005 during an investigation into the logic bomb, which the company said was discovered by a co-worker early that year. He was arrested Dec. 18, 2006, at his Montville, N.J., home.
A logic bomb, computer experts say, is a virus that is placed internally on a system. It is harder to spot because it does not have to go through computer firewalls or any other security, as does an outside virus.
Prosecutors said Lin created the logic bomb, which never went off, as revenge for what he feared was an impending layoff from Medco. But Lin's family and attorney told the New York Times that Lin was developing a program to automatically erase data from servers that were being put out of commission.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/01/15/bibf0115.htm.