A Minnesota man has been fined and sentenced to probation after a year-long Ethereum cryptojacking scheme. He compromised his former employer’s systems and mined ETH every night for about a year.
Despite incurring $45,000 in server costs, the perpetrator earned less than $6,000. Economic desperation is fueling this low-profile crime, and worsening conditions could lead to similar incidents.
Ethereum cryptojacking explained
Cryptojacking, the misuse of computers to mine digital assets, is an old scheme in the cryptocurrency industry that periodically resurfaces. A Minnesota man was recently sentenced to three years’ probation and a $45,000 fine for cryptojacking his former employer to mine Ethereum.
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According to local reports, Joshua Paul Armbrust used a cryptojacking scheme to secretly mine Ethereum for over a year.
After leaving Digital River, a payment processing and e-commerce company, he used his AWS access to mine ETH on his company’s computers from 6pm to 7am every day.
“The defendant’s actions undermine the foundations of digital trust and security. Companies rely on former employees to behave ethically and respect company systems and data, even after they leave the company. Unauthorized access to a company’s cloud infrastructure… exposes sensitive systems to potential compromise,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Bradley Endicott.
However, compared to some previous cryptojacking schemes, this Ethereum mining operation was quite small. In total, Mr. Armbrust was only able to mine and liquidate $5,895 worth of ETH. These activities cost Digital River over $45,000 in service fees.
All things considered, this was not an effective operation.
Nevertheless, the defendant admitted responsibility for these actions and claimed that he used the funds to care for his sick mother. This, and his failure to cover his tracks, allowed him to win a lighter sentence.
Mr. Armbrust will be required to recoup Digital River’s server costs and serve probation, but will not be jailed.
Rampant greed is fueling today’s crypto crime supercycle, but a real sense of desperation is also fueling illegal activity. Small-scale crimes like this Ethereum cryptojacking scheme can remain undetected for years due to their low profile.
If the U.S. economic outlook continues to deteriorate, we may see more actions like this in the near future.
