 A former IT security worker tried to hijack a blackmail attempt on his firm by diverting payments to himself. Ashley Liles, 27, has been jailed for 43 months after being convicted of blackmail and unauthorised access to a computer, with intent to commit other offences. Liles worked as a security analyst at Oxford BioMedica, one of the main laboratories involved in finding a Covid vaccine. The cyber firm suffered a security breach and a blackmail attempt against the firm's former chief executive, Peter Nolan, in February 2018. The original hackers threatened to leak sensitive company data unless a ransom was paid of £300,000 in Bitcoin. Liles, who was tasked with helping with the firm's internal investigation into the security breach, was found to have accessed Nolan's email 320 times between March 2 and March 9. The IT worker from Fleetwood, Hertfordshire, went on to create an email address similar to the original hacker's, and changed payment details to ensure the ransom payment would reach his account instead. Judge Hassan Khan, speaking at Reading Crown Court, concluded that Liles had 'piggy-backed' on the hacker's extortion attempt (Picture: Google Maps) He continued to apply pressure on the firm to go ahead with the payment, although the ransom was never paid. Detectives were able to track down Liles from internet searches he made from his personal laptop and work computer, including 'anonymous bitcoin wallet' and 'somebody has my bitcoin wallet can they find me?'. Liles's defence counsel, Charles Crinion, told Reading Crown Court: 'He is somewhat at a loss as to how he found himself committing these offences. He has lost a huge amount, a career, a good name, all this time that has been involved in bringing the case to its conclusion. 'Regarding why he has ended up here, the pre-sentence report author believes it was a lack of maturity. He was 22 years old when he committed these offenc){kind=link}
NEWS… BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT
A former IT security worker tried to hijack a blackmail attempt on his firm by diverting payments to himself.
Ashley Liles, 27, has been jailed for 43 months after being convicted of blackmail and unauthorised access to a computer, with intent to commit other offences.
Liles worked as a security analyst at Oxford BioMedica, one of the main laboratories involved in finding a Covid vaccine.
The cyber firm suffered a security breach and a blackmail attempt against the firm’s former chief executive, Peter Nolan, in February 2018.