How not to get hired: Man threatens to hack company unless firm fires female employee and hires him

Applying for a job can be a challenging experience sometimes and it is not unusual for people to try out new strategies to make themselves stand out. However, in one of the most bizarre attempts to get hired, a Washington-based man threatened to hack a North Carolina-based healthcare software company to get the firm to fire a female employee and hire him instead.

28-year-old Todd Michael Gori was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison by a North Carolina judge for threatening cyberattacks against a company. Gori wrote an email to the Chapel Hill company TSI Healthcare in which he reportedly wrote that he and his (unspecified) cohorts would launch a cyberattack to "take out" the entire firm, if the company refused to comply with his demands within 72 hours.

Bleeping Computer reported that according to court documents it obtained, Gori appeared to have a personal vendetta against a female employee working at TSI Healthcare, who had rejected his job application several times in the past.

"Again, you have two choices. Get rid of her and hire me. Or slowly be chipped away at until you are gone. She is a horrible operator that can only manage 2 screens with an over-inflated travel budget. I fly at least 10x as many places as this loon on 1/5th of the budget," Gori's email read, according to Bleeping Computer.

"I have petitioned for a job with you guys with her as a reference as I am a felon with computer skills and need assistance getting work as, technically, I have 'no work history'. She declines everytime and buries me even further," Gori wrote.

In his email, Gori also reportedly boasted of having pen-tested TSI Healthcare's website and discovering weak security measures.

"I'm giving you guys 72 hours to respond until the attack goes full-scale. There is nothing that can be done to stop the attacks. I have run multiple penetration tests on your entire network and your company fails miserably," Gori wrote in the email. "Again, let me be clear. The only way I will work with TSI and stop the attack is to fire [identifying information redacted] and hire me and ensure I am compensated enough..."

Bleeping Computer reported that Gori was arrested in August 2017. He was reportedly charged with more severe crimes after the FBI found that Gori had also threatened to buy a gun and shoot TSI Healthcare's employees. However, the other charges were dropped after Gori signed a plea agreement.

In addition to his 37-month imprisonment, Gori has also been sentenced to three years of supervised release.