# Former infrastructure engineer gets 32 months for employer network attack

_Published Tuesday, October 6, 2026 at 5:45 AM EDT · Security · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![Former infrastructure engineer gets 32 months for employer network attack — Primary](https://www.bleepstatic.com/content/hl-images/2025/11/10/Hacker_IAB.jpg)

Former infrastructure engineer Daniel Rhyne was sentenced to 32 months in prison for locking devices on his employer's network in a failed extortion plot, BleepingComputer reported. The 57-year-old pleaded guilty after his arrest in August 2024.

Court documents describe unauthorized use of an administrator account to schedule password changes, delete 13 domain administrator accounts and disrupt access to 254 servers and 3,284 workstations. In November 2023, Rhyne demanded 20 bitcoin and threatened to shut down 40 random servers daily over ten days. His claim that backups had been deleted appeared in the ransom email.

## Sources

- [BleepingComputer](https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/engineer-sentenced-for-locking-thousands-of-devices-on-employer-network/)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/ixoi3hRYlIcrFx93ih6viJ
Published: 2026-10-06T09:45:54.498Z
Story chronology: 2026-10-06T08:19:24.000Z
Retrieved: 2026-10-06T11:51:32.727Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)