[2017-10-04] Government Head of IT Department Fired for Mining Bitcoin Using Sta

[moriskarlov]

Two government officials of the Crimean Council of Ministers were caught mining bitcoin using government computers and were subsequently fired. They reportedly installed “malicious software” on the government’s server and programmed over a dozen computers to mine bitcoin.

Government Employees Caught Mining

The Chairman of the Anti-Corruption Committee of the Republic of Crimea, Alexander Akshatin, said at a press conference last week in Sevastopol that two employees of the Crimean Council of Ministers were caught mining bitcoin using government properties, RIA Novosti reported. One was the head of the IT department and the other was the department’s head of hardware and technical support. Both were subsequently dismissed, Akshatin revealed, adding that:

        "They put malicious software on the server of the Crimean government, which opened access to the information stored on it. Concurrently, more than a dozen computers in the basement of the building were also used which gave this same access."

The full article
https://news.bitcoin.com/government-head-of-it-department-fired-for-mining-bitcoin-using-state-owned-computers-in-crimea/

[Kprawn]

They could hardly make any profit from CPU mining, so I think it was a bit over exaggerated and unnecessary for them to

fire them. Yes, the software might have exposed their network, but I doubt that it would have been their intent to sabotage

their own network. People install pirated apps and games on these computers and they never know what the impact of that

is, but when IT is involved, they fire them. 

[aso118]

They could hardly make any profit from CPU mining, so I think it was a bit over exaggerated and unnecessary for them to

fire them. Yes, the software might have exposed their network, but I doubt that it would have been their intent to sabotage

their own network. People install pirated apps and games on these computers and they never know what the impact of that

is, but when IT is involved, they fire them. 

The firing is not because they made a lot of money, it is because they wilfully ignored rules and put their government organization at risk. I am not sure whether they received sufficient training, but private companies are very strict in dealing with incidents like these.