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Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Fired Programmer Must Stay in U.S., Judge Rules

(CN) - A federal judge barred a computer programmer from leaving the country amid allegations that he hacked into Toyota's computer system and "sabotaged various internal programs" after being fired.

U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell in Lexington, Ky., issued a temporary restraining order Monday against Ibrahimshah Shahulhameed, a former GlobalSource IT worker assigned to work on Toyota's computer system.

After finding out that he was being fired on Aug. 23, Shahulhameed allegedly broke into Toyota's computer system and sabotaged several programs, crashing toyotasupplier.com's entire network.

Toyota suspects he also "downloaded proprietary and confidential information for his own improper use," according to its federal complaint.

The car maker claims Shahulhameed breached the system at midnight on Aug. 23 and kept working until about 6:30 the next morning.

On Friday Caldwell blocked Shahulhameed from "accessing, using, or disseminating" any of Toyota's property and trade secrets, and ordered him to return all property and data gleaned from the alleged hacking.

After a hearing Saturday, she issued another temporary restraining order Monday that bars Shahulhameed from traveling outside the United States for two weeks.

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