Engineer Gets 32 Months for Bitcoin Extortion Plot Against His Own Employer
Summary
Former infrastructure engineer Daniel Rhyne was sentenced to 32 months in prison after pleading guilty to extorting and damaging his former employer’s computer network. In November 2023, an unauthorized virtual machine was used to delete administrator accounts, change passwords across thousands of devices, and schedule server shutdowns. The attacker demanded €700,000 in Bitcoin, threatening to disable more servers unless paid. Investigators linked the machine and attack to Rhyne through his work laptop, network records, and building access logs.
