Indian employee fired by Singapore company hacks and deletes servers, causing Rs 5.66 crore loss

An Indian national has been sentenced to two years and six months in prison for unauthorized access to computer material, which resulted in the deletion of 180 virtual servers, costing his former employer, NCS, nearly SGD 918,000 (Rs 5.66 crore), in retaliation for his dismissal. A 39-year-old, a former employee of NCS, a well-known information communication and technology services provider, was found guilty of staging a cyber-attack on the company's quality assurance (QA) system after his firing.

Who is the Indian employee fired by Singapore company?

Kandula Nagaraja was a member of a 20-person team in charge of maintaining NCS's quality assurance system | Image: Canva

Kandula Nagaraja was a member of a 20-person team in charge of maintaining NCS's quality assurance system, which was used to test new software and applications. Although the system did not hold any sensitive information, its disruption had serious operational and financial consequences.

Despite believing he had made "good contributions" during his tenure, Nagaraju was fired in October 2022 for poor performance, and his employment officially ended on November 16, 2022.

Why was the employee fired?

Between January 6 and January 17, 2023, Nagaraju accessed the system six times from India | Image: Canva

According to court filings, Nagaraju was "confused and upset" about his discharge. Due to a lack of immediate job in Singapore, he returned to India, where he accessed NCS's system without authorization using administrator credentials. Between January 6 and January 17, 2023, Nagaraju accessed the system six times from India.

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Nagaraju returned to Singapore in February 2023, having secured a new position, and stayed with a former NCS colleague, utilizing their Wi-Fi network to access the system on February 23, 2023. During his illegal access, Nagaraju experimented with computer scripts to assess their power to remove servers.

The main damage was caused in March 2023 when Nagaraju accessed NCS's QA system 13 times, culminating in a two-day frenzy on March 18 and 19 during which he performed a designed script to painstakingly remove 180 virtual servers.

The deletions made the system inoperable the next day, prompting NCS to conduct an internal probe.

How was the case handled by authorities?

A police report was submitted on April 11, 2023 | Image: Canva

A police report was submitted on April 11, 2023, and following investigations revealed many IP addresses associated with the sabotage. Nagaraju¡¯s laptop was confiscated, revealing the destructive script and evidence of Google searches on how to remove virtual servers.

Despite knowing he was not permitted to access the system after his employment was terminated, Nagaraju proceeded with his conduct, resulting in a loss of SGD 917,832 to NCS. "

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Nagaraju was aware of his lack of authorization and still chose to access the system, resulting in substantial financial loss and operational disruption," declared the prosecuting attorney on Monday.

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