Former Engineer Sentenced to 32 Months Over 20 Bitcoin Extortion Scheme

U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp has sentenced former core infrastructure engineer Daniel Rhyne to 32 months in federal prison for extorting his employer and intentionally damaging protected computers. In November 2023, Rhyne used unauthorized administrator access to compromise his New Jersey-based employer's network, targeting 13 domain administrator accounts, 254 servers, and 3,284 workstations. Rhyne then issued an extortion demand requiring 20 Bitcoin, valued at about $750,000 at the time of the attack and around $1.7 million currently, under threats of progressive server shutdowns. Rhyne pleaded guilty in April before receiving his sentence in Trenton federal court.