AMP contractor Yi Zheng sentenced for attempted identity theft

Magistrate brushes aside claim that Chinese national working for AMP didn’t know his attempted identity theft was illegal.

Yi Zheng (second left) leaves the Downing Centre Court in Sydney after being sentenced. Picture: AAP

A former contractor for wealth giant AMP said he was motivated to steal the personal data of customers after watching a TV series about the “dark web” and did not know downloading the data was illegal.

Yi Zheng, a 28-year-old Chinese national, was sentenced to 180 hours of community service at Downing Centre Local Court on Thursday after pleading guilty to attempted identity theft in a matter involving 20 different AMP customers. The offence holds a maximum sentence of seven years imprisonment.

Just six months after he was employed by AMP, Mr Zheng downloaded data including customer passport and driver’s licence information and sent it to a personal email account.

He was caught in December after he attempted to install a “dark web” internet browser on his AMP laptop, using an external USB storage device; a move that prompted AMP’s software program Dtex to automatically alert cybersecurity staff.

Defence lawyer William Chan said Zheng acted out of “greed” after watching a TV series that made him aware of the value of personal data. “He knew the identification information was important and valuable and wondered what he could do with it,” Mr Chan told the court.

“His exposure to the dark web gave him the impulse on the day [to commit the offence].”

The court heard that Zheng “was not acting under duress” and did not have any grievances against AMP, but instead was not aware of Australian laws surrounding data theft.

But Magistrate Michael Barko dismissed the argument, stating that Zheng’s two university degrees in computer science indicated he was intelligent enough to know it was a “white collar crime”.

“You would have to live in a vacuum to not understand that taking another person’s identity is unlawful,” Magistrate Barko said.

“Not being familiar with Australian law at the time of the offence … what a load of nonsense.”

A Burwood resident, Zheng was arrested by NSW Border Force officers on 17 January as he tried to board a flight to China with his wife and six-month-old baby.

The court heard that Zheng suffered severe depression after his arrest following media reports published about him in Australia and China.

“My reputation here and in China is ruined,” Zheng submitted in a statement court.

“I’m embarrassed to go out and communicate with people.”

Magistrate Barko said there was no suggestion the media reports were anything other than fact but noted that Zheng’s career was “effectively ruined”.

“He won’t be trusted with personal data by an employer again.”

AMP announced yesterday in the company annual report that their privacy policy and code of conduct policy was updated in January this year.

“It is critical that we continually strengthen our cyber security network and have detective, preventative and responsive controls in place to ensure our systems and customer information are protected,” AMP stated in the report.

“We provide training to help our employees understand the value of data, the impact if it is mishandled or exposed, as well as their responsibilities in keeping AMP customer and employee data secure and confidential.”