A New York City employee was recently caught mining bitcoin at work, which stemmed from a 2014 incident. Vladimir Ilyayev is a worker for the city’s department of education. He admitted to bypassing work security and mining bitcoin on the job without the proper permissions. The City of New York Conflicts of Interest Board disciplines him as a result of the action.
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The case report summarized Ilyayev’s admissions: “I ran bitcoin mining software on my 
DOE computer from 6:00 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. every night from March 19, 2014, until April 17, 2014….During that time, I monitored the progress of my bitcoin mining software from my home computer using remote access software.”
Furthermore, Ilyayev admitted to installing the equipment during work and profiting from the mining activity when he was supposed to be working. His code of conduct for employment states he was not supposed to be engaging in any kind of personal finance transactions while working. He also admitted to the dates that he began installing the mining software without permission from the DOE.
Sanctions against Ilyayev; Bitcoin Mining at Work
After the board investigated the case, they decided to punish Ilyayev financially. According to the report, for misusing City time and engaging in profit making activity, Ilyayev had to forfeit 4 days of leave. This totals out to about $611. The employee agreed with the punishment and signed off on it.
Other news sources reported this kind of bitcoin mining by DOE employees has happened before. There was an incident back in 2015 with a DOE network engineer. This kind of “wrongful” bitcoin or cryptocurrency mining is somewhat attractive, and may continue into the future.
Do you think Ilyayev should have been punished for this? Will cryptocurrency still be mined wrongfully by employees in various businesses? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!
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