A former data analyst contractor for Brightly Software has been sentenced to two years in prison for targeting his employer in a $2.5 million extortion scheme.
Brightly is a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) company formerly known as SchoolDude, which was acquired by Siemens in August 2022. Brightly employs over 700 people and provides asset management and maintenance software to more than 12,000 clients worldwide.
27-year-old North Carolina man Cameron Curry (also known as "Loot") was found guilty in March of orchestrating an "extensive cyber extortion scheme" targeting his employer.
According to court documents, Curry stole sensitive documents after gaining access to the company's payroll information and corporate data, which he later used to extort Brightly after learning that his six-month contract wouldn't be extended.
One day after his contract ended on December 10, he emailed dozens of Brightly employees using the Loot alias and the lootsoftware@outlook.com email address between December 11, 2023, and January 24, 2024, threatening to leak the stolen information unless he was paid a $2.5 million ransom in cryptocurrency.
