NY Government Employee Fined for Mining Bitcoin at Work

[Palmerson]

Wow, I wonder what the value of Bitcoin he mined is. I though mining through computer is not profitable anymore? In any case,  four vacation days fine is a light punishment.

This was back in 2014 (not sure why it's being reported now) when mining on regular CPUs (I'm guessing  they don't have too many high-end GPUs in the Department of Education) was already a waste of time and energy.  He only had it running for a month, so probably not much.  Even at today's prices I'm guessing he didn't even break even for the value of the vacation days.

No matter what method he extracted coins. He procured them on someone else's equipment, and you spent someone else's electricity. Rightly so fined. What will you do if your neighbor will connect to your wires, and will generate coins? Many of these cases.

[1713555844]

1713555844

[1713555844]

1713555844

[1713555844]

1713555844

[1713555844]

1713555844

[1713555844]

1713555844

[1713555844]

1713555844

[aTriz]

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/government-employee-fined-after-getting-caught-mining-bitcoin-at-work/

According to a recently published disposition, a computer systems manager at New York City’s Department of Education (DOE), named Vladimir Ilyayev, was fined after getting caught using the DOE’s computers to mine bitcoin.

According to reports, Vladimir Ilyayev has been working at the DOE for over a decade and, after getting caught, wasn’t fired, but got a fine of four vacation days, worth an estimated $611, by the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB).

The employee installed a bitcoin mining program on the DOE’s computers that ran at night, between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. This went on for an entire month in 2014, before he got caught by the DOE’s Division of Instructional and Information Technology.

However, this wasn’t the first time Vladimir Ilyayev attempted to use the DOE’s computer to mine bitcoin. According to the disposition, he made “five or six” attempts to install the bitcoin mining program, and in each one of them he was “thwarted by the DOE security software.” Since he didn’t give up, he eventually managed to bypass security protocols for a month.

Four vacation days is a pretty low fine, and I expect he thinks it was all well worth the hassle.

Lol he should have been fired for installing outside software on government/company computers. This really paints a bad picture of Bitcoin, especially to people who are new.

Wonder how much Bitcoin he actually got, doesn't seem like he got paid much anyways.

I dont think he made more than 611$ and should have got fired for installing anything on a company computer. It is the regular routine everywhere in the private sector but for Govt officials its kind of different. If it was in 2010 then he would have kicked them and leave the company because the value would have been in millions.

Well, 611 is an average of around 150 USD pay a day for his job, which when you put in perspective is actually pretty bad. Say he works around 8 hours a day which is barely 20 dollars an hour. That's is barely anything for someone who is a computer systems manager.

They should have fired him and he could get a better job.

[cybersofts]

https://www.cryptocoinsnews.com/government-employee-fined-after-getting-caught-mining-bitcoin-at-work/

According to a recently published disposition, a computer systems manager at New York City’s Department of Education (DOE), named Vladimir Ilyayev, was fined after getting caught using the DOE’s computers to mine bitcoin.

According to reports, Vladimir Ilyayev has been working at the DOE for over a decade and, after getting caught, wasn’t fired, but got a fine of four vacation days, worth an estimated $611, by the New York City Conflicts of Interest Board (COIB).

The employee installed a bitcoin mining program on the DOE’s computers that ran at night, between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. This went on for an entire month in 2014, before he got caught by the DOE’s Division of Instructional and Information Technology.

However, this wasn’t the first time Vladimir Ilyayev attempted to use the DOE’s computer to mine bitcoin. According to the disposition, he made “five or six” attempts to install the bitcoin mining program, and in each one of them he was “thwarted by the DOE security software.” Since he didn’t give up, he eventually managed to bypass security protocols for a month.

Four vacation days is a pretty low fine, and I expect he thinks it was all well worth the hassle.

Lol this is interesting and a welcome development to bitcoiners all over the world. This is a sign that shows bitcoin will soon go mainstream and get bigger than PayPal and all the credit cards companies. The way i see it, everyday we are making new steps forward toward the bitcoin promised land. Bitcoin is making new headlines everyday and many people are yet to know about the latest technology called bitcoin and very soon they will start coming and knocking our doors trying to buy some bitcoins from us. So guys, my advice here is hold on your bitcoins for now every soon we will be on the rocket to moon and bitcoin is our golden ticket, trust! Elon Musk is leaving this planet very soon and we don't wanna be left behind

[aoihs00]

Oh yeah of course they must be punished for it as its illegal anyway. The employer is paying for your nonsense and how they could tolerate that? There is nothing like free money and there is always hard work behind everything.


Oh that great “During that time, I monitored the progress of my bitcoin mining software from my home computer using remote access software.”


That is completely against the policy of your employer. We sign the documents and agree to the employer terms that we won’t use or back watch the companies property. I think NY DOE has not got anything wrong in it.

[Xester]

Punishing him is just fair.  The computer, internet connection, and the electricity he was using is owned by the government.  And to think that at the time of his duty he is doing that thing, it is really bad as an employee.  We have sworn to serve the people and using the property of the government to acquire or earn is definitelt and obviously worth punishing. 

The punishment of four days is not good if I will be the director of the school.

[An0nyMoose]

This guy was stealing electricity and time from his work, and I think it is fair to punish/fire him because it isn't right (as much as I like Bitcoin).

[xplorer79]

I'm sure almost 99% computing power and related electricity in the world is wasted with computer idle power, so this guy did something good 
Just kidding... Mining on your own idle hardware is a thing, mining on your company (tax payers ?) idle hardware is another. He sould have not done that, and he would have been basically fired from every company for doing it.

[audaciousbeing]

The employee actually forgot that he has signed a non-conflict agreement and even by default not to use the company assets for other purposes other than official duties but I am happy for him though because he was only given a slap on the wrist for what he did. In other climes, he would have lost that job but either way, he would have made more money or else, that would amount to double tragedy for him. A lot of us is actually guilty of this especially several who has access to unlimited internet in the office we tend to misuse such opportunity.

[iram3130]

I think there was no need for any punishment for that work. I have seen lots of government official take all the resources and mine. The only problem he got into is that he got caught.

[justdimin]

This is funny. Some guy used a supercomputer to mine altcoins a few years ago... only problem is it was his school's. LOL

What is wrong with mining bitcoins with someone else computers? It is not a crime as far as I can see. They are not harming anyone. Do these organizations who charge for such acts think that their precious resources are being misused? It is pathetic to do so. Well, if this is happening then it is better to not try out such things.

[xplorer79]

What is wrong with mining bitcoins with someone else computers? It is not a crime as far as I can see. They are not harming anyone.

Here I could agree. I tend to think "if it is not forbidden, it is allowed". Mining falls there. But if I understand it well, this guy mined on tax payers computers / money. There is a moral thing here. Even if I think wasted computer power should be mining, I have no right to decide what to do with tax payers money. Maybe one day, a law will tell "every tax payer free computing power could be allocated to making money", and I would agree with it. But regarding current laws, this guy just stole free computing power and nuclear (already producted energy that could not be stored) energy.

[craZyLovE0916]

I can't blame this guy for what he did, but he does deserve to get in trouble now because this is not fair to his coworkers or boss who pays for the electrical expenses that he was taking for free. It was a nice try, but he could have also saved his money from his job instead of trying to steal from the company and now going to pay the price.