An information technology worker accused of crashing his company's system after he was laid off has pleaded guilty to a felony charge of unlawful use of a computer.

Vladimir Ivanovich Shved entered his plea Thursday and is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 23.

Shved was laid off by Edulog in Missoula in late October, and on Nov. 2, multiple servers crashed nearly simultaneously at the company. Its sister company, Logisys, which provides software for law enforcement, fire and emergency management services, also was affected.

Court records say Edulog actually offered Shved an hourly rate to help resolve the problem, and he countered with a demand for a contract of up to five years at $100 to $150 an hour.

He didn't get the contract.

Associated Press

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