A U.S. District Court in Minnesota sentenced a former Canadian Pacific Railway employee to a year in prison on Tuesday for his deliberate attempt to sabotage the company’s computer system.
The Justice Department on Tuesday said Christopher Victor Grupe was sentenced to a year, plus one day, to prison for intentionally causing damage to Canadian Pacific Railway’s computer system.
Grupe, 46, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Patrick J. Schiltz of the District of Minnesota. He was convicted of one count of intentional damage to a protected computer on Oct. 6, 2017, following a five-day jury trial in Minneapolis.
According to court records, from September 2013 until December 2015, Grupe was an information technology employee with CP in Alberta, Canada. On Dec. 15, 2015, following a 12-day suspension, he was notified by the railroad’s management that he was going to be fired due to insubordination. However, at his request, Grupe was instead allowed to resign, effective that same day. In his resignation letter, Grupe indicated that he would return all company property, including his laptop, remote access device, and access badges, to the CP office.
However, before returning his lap and remote access device on Dec. 17, 2015, Grupe infiltrated CP’s system and deleted files, removed administrative-level accounts and changed passwords, causing portions of the railroad’s IT system network switches to lock up. To conceal his activity, Grupe attempted to wipe the laptop’s hard drive before returning it to CP.
On Jan. 6, 2016, while trying to address a networking problem, CP IT staff discovered that they were unable to access the main network switches. After undertaking a risky rebooting procedure, they discovered evidence in logging data stored in the memory of the switches connecting the damage to Grupe. The railroad further confirmed the illicit activity by hiring an outside computer security company, the Justice Department said.
Former CP employee sentenced for IT sabotage
