Engineer Gets 6 Years After Saying His Theft Made Ubiquiti Safer

An engineer who worked for billionaire Robert Pera’s Ubiquiti Inc. got six years in prison after a judge rejected his claim that his plan to steal data from the company and demand $1.9 million for its return began as an “unsanctioned security drill” that made the computer network safer.

Nickolas Sharp, 37, was sentenced Wednesday after pleading guilty to charges of intentionally damaging a protected computer, wire fraud and making false statements to law enforcement. According to prosecutors, he extorted the money from the company at a time when he was purportedly working to fix the security breach ...