An engineer took advantage of his position to obtain virtual currency for profit, constituting the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison

According to the Workers' Daily, the People's Court of Changping District, Beijing, recently released a case in which an employee used his position to obtain virtual currency for profit, constituting the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data. Zhang is a blockchain engineer at a certain network company. When he participated in the project development, he learned that there was a large amount of Ethereum in his account, so he planned to attack the company's account to obtain it. Taking advantage of his work, he asked his colleagues for program codes and private keys that exceeded his authority, and shared them to a "technical exchange group", inviting group members to crack and attack the company's account, successfully obtaining 106.15 Ethereums, and illegally making a profit of 38,329.76 yuan. The court held that Zhang violated the regulations, illegally obtained Ethereum information in the company's computer system and traded for profit, constituting the crime of illegally obtaining computer information system data. Although there are loopholes in the company's management, this is not a reason for Zhang to be exempted from responsibility for the crime. In the end, Zhang was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months in prison, a fine of 60,000 yuan, and the recovery of illegal gains of 38,329.76 yuan. The second instance ruled to dismiss the appeal and uphold the original verdict.