Alex Kibkalo. Photo via LinkedIn
Alex Kibkalo. Photo via LinkedIn

Alex Kibkalo, a former Microsoft employee, has been sentenced to three months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing trade secrets from the Redmond-based company. Judge John C. Coughenour from the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington also ordered Kibkalo to pay a $100 fine.

Kibkalo, a Russian national, was working for Microsoft in Lebanon when he sent an anonymous French blogger source code for the version of Windows 8 used by ARM devices, as well as Microsoft’s Activation Server Software Development Kit, which Microsoft uses to ensure that a user isn’t running pirated software. He was arrested in Seattle in March of this year.

The case is notable because it led to a change in Microsoft’s policy for searching through users’ Hotmail emails. Microsoft was able to catch Kibkalo because its internal security department searched through the email of the blogger he was corresponding with, and found the connection between the two people.

That move drew widespread criticism from around the Internet, and Microsoft has since changed its policies so that the company will refer similar cases to law enforcement in the future, rather than going snooping on its own.

The judgment against Kibkalo can be found below.

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