Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Employee Fired for Turning Game Network Into Bitcoin Mining Network

A staff member at the ESEA  (the E-Sports Entertainment Association) gaming network has been fired for allegedly turning the company’s software into a secret Bitcoin-mining Trojan.

ESEA blamed an unidentified staffer. Now, as the company faces a class action lawsuit, it says that employee has been axed.

“The person responsible for releasing the unauthorized Bitcoin mining code has been terminated,” said ESEA co-founder Craig Levine in an email message. “We have been dealing with the entire situation in a responsible fashion to remedy those impacted and take steps to prevent this from happening again.”

A lawsuit has been filed against ESEA in San Francisco Superior Court, claiming that the mining software damaged client’s systems and spiked their electricity bills.

So far the company has resolved 275 claims from customers who say they were damaged by the mining software, and the company is working to resolve another 15, Levine said. The Bitcoin-mining update may have been installed on as many as 14,000 computers.

In just a few weeks ESEA’s employee earned 30 Bitcoins!

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