A disgruntled former core infrastructure engineer at a New Jersey industrial company sabotaged the firm’s computer network and extorted employees with a large Bitcoin (BTC) ransom demand.
The U.S. Department of Justice says 59-year-old Missouri man Daniel Rhyne pleaded guilty to a two-count information that charged him with extortion in relation to a threat to cause damage to a protected computer and intentional damage to a protected computer.
In or around November 2023, Rhyne took steps to execute a scheme to hack his employer’s computer network and extort the firm into paying a ransom.
The engineer initiated unauthorized remote desktop sessions and scheduled tasks to delete network administrator accounts, change passwords, and shut down multiple servers.
“On November 25, 2023, Rhyne sent an extortion email to Victim-1 employees in which he threatened to continue shutting down Victim-1 servers unless and until he received approximately 20 Bitcoin, which, at the time, was valued at approximately $750,000.”
At time of writing, 20 Bitcoin is worth about $1.667 million.
He pleaded guilty on April 1st, 2026, in Trenton federal court before U.S. District Judge Michael A. Shipp.
Shipp sentenced Rhyne on October 5th, 2026, to 32 months in prison.
The FBI’s Newark Field Office and FBI Kansas City investigated the case, which was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Taj Moore of the Cybercrime Unit in Newark.
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