Alex Kibkalo pleaded guilty to the theft of trade secrets from his former employer, Microsoft, and will serve three months in prison.
Court documents published by The Register also indicate that a Washington district court judge waived an undisclosed fine because Kibkalo was “financially unable” and unlikely to become unable to pay the fine. When he is released, according to reports, Kibkalo will be deported to his native Russia.
In March, Kibkalo was arrested for stealing pre-release software updates for Windows RT as well as the Activation Server software developer kit, which created the activation systems which validate product keys. He then leaked them to an unnamed French blogger, believed to publish documents under the alias “Wzor”.
Unfortunately, Kibkalo used Microsoft’s own Hotmail service as a way to leak the documents, and Microsoft itself pored through the email to find evidence of the suspected crime.
Microsoft later changed its privacy policy to make it clear that it would not again snoop inside a user’s Hotmail for evidence that the user was trafficking in trade secrets or other illegal activities that involved Microsoft. The privacy policies and an associated services agreement were released Wednesday, before the services agreement takes effect at the end of July.