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Date: 08-30-2020
Case Style:
United States of America v. Sudhish Kasaba Ramesh
Case Number: 5:20-cr-00289-LHK
Judge: Lucy H. Koh
Court: United States District Court for the Northern District of California (Santa Clara County)
Plaintiff's Attorney: United States District Attorney’s Office
Defendant's Attorney:
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Description:
San Jose, CA - The United States of America charged Sudhish Kasaba Ramesh with intentionally accessing a protected computer without authorization and recklessly causing damage.
According to the plea agreement, Ramesh admitted to intentionally accessing Cisco Systems’ cloud infrastructure that was hosted by Amazon Web Services without Cisco’s permission on September 24, 2018. Ramesh worked for Cisco and resigned in approximately April 2018. During his unauthorized access, Ramesh admitted that he deployed a code from his Google Cloud Project account that resulted in the deletion of 456 virtual machines for Cisco’s WebEx Teams application, which provided video meetings, video messaging, file sharing, and other collaboration tools. He further admitted that he acted recklessly in deploying the code, and consciously disregarded the substantial risk that his conduct could harm to Cisco. As a result of Ramesh’s conduct, over 16,000 WebEx Teams accounts were shut down for up to two weeks, and caused Cisco to spend approximately $1,400,000 in employee time to restore the damage to the application and refund over $1,000,000 to affected customers. No customer data was compromised as a result of the defendant’s conduct.
Ramesh, 30, of San Jose, California, was charged by Information on July 13, 2020. He was charged with one count of Intentionally Accessing a Protected Computer Without Authorization and Recklessly Causing Damage, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1030(a)(5)(B) and (c)(4)(A)(i)(I).
Under the plea agreement, Ramesh pled guilty to the sole count of the Information.
Ramesh is currently released on bond. Bail was set at $50,000.
Ramesh’s sentencing hearing is scheduled for December 9, 2020, before The Honorable Lucy H. Koh, U.S. District Court Judge, in San Jose. The maximum statutory penalty for the offense of Intentionally Accessing a Protected Computer Without Authorization and Recklessly Causing Damage, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1030(a)(5)(B) and (c)(4)(A)(i)(I), is 5 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000. However, any sentence will be imposed by the court only after consideration of the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and the federal statute governing the imposition of a sentence, 18 U.S.C. § 3553.
Susan Knight is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case with the assistance of Elise Etter. The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Cisco Systems, Inc. fully cooperated with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
18:1030(a)(5)(B) and (c)(4)(A)(i)(I) - Intentionally Accessing a Protected Computer Without Authorization and Recklessly Causing Damage
(1)
Outcome: 08/26/2020 12 Minute Entry for proceedings held via Zoom Video Conference before Judge Lucy H. Koh: Change of Plea Hearing as to Sudhish Kasaba Ramesh held on 8/26/2020, Plea entered by Sudhish Kasaba Ramesh (1) Guilty on Count 1 of the Information (ECF No. 1 ). An executed Plea Agreement was previously submitted to the Court (ECF No. 7 )
The Court REFERRED Defendant to the Office of U.S. Probation for preparation of a Presentence Investigation Report.
Sentencing set for 12/9/2020 09:15 AM before Judge Lucy H. Koh.
Plaintiff's Attorney: Susan Knight.
Defendant's Attorney: James Reilly.
Court Reporter: Lee-Anne Shortridge.
Total Time in Court: 9:17-9:30 AM (22 Minutes).
Defendant Present: Yes.
Defendant in Custody: No.
(cfeS, COURT STAFF) (Filed on 8/26/2020) (Entered: 08/26/2020)
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