Comment by ddeck

>What sort of lawsuit might they bring against a university whose researchers deliberately inserted malicious code into software that literally runs a good portion of the world?

I am also not a lawyer, but aside from any civil action, the conduct looks like it might be considered criminal under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act:

"Whoever knowingly causes the transmission of a program, information, code, or command, and as a result of such conduct, intentionally causes damage without authorization, to a protected computer;"

https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1030#a_5