Man charged with using govt systems for crypto mining
The Australian Federal Police are taking a government employee to court for allegedly illegally modifying his agency’s computer systems to mine more than $9000 in cryptocurrencies.
The 33-year-old New South Wales resident has been accused of abusing his position as an IT contractor to the affected agency to manipulate programs aimed to use the processing power of the agency’s computer network to conduct the cryptocurrency mining.
The defendant, who cannot be named, faced the NSW local court yesterday.
He has been charged with unauthorised modification of data to cause impairment and unauthorised modification of restricted data, which have maximum sentences of 10 years and 2 years imprisonment respectively.
AFP offices raided the man’s Sydney home in March last year, seizing a personal laptop, personal phone, employee ID cards and data files.
AFP Manager for Cybercrime Operations Acting Commander Chris Goldsmid said abuse of public office is a very serious matter.
“Australian taxpayers put their trust in public officials to perform vital roles for our community with the utmost integrity. Any alleged criminal conduct which betrays this trust for personal gain will be investigated and prosecuted,” he said.
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