Top Russian Nuclear Scientists Got Jailed For Trying To Mine Cryptocurrency On A Supercomputer
It's baffling how anyone, let alone nuclear researchers, could think this would be a good idea.
Even though some nutcases have built a bitcoin mining rig from Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphones, you need a really good computer to be able to mine cryptocurrency more efficiently.
So, do you risk it when you¡¯re sitting on prime processing power at work? Apparently, some think that¡¯s a worthwhile risk to take to get rich quickly.
reuters
Scientists working at one of Russia¡¯s top secret nuclear facilities have been arrested by state police for trying to use the powerful research computers available there to mine cryptocurrencies.
ALSO READ: Hackers Infect 4,275 Govt Websites With Cryptocurrency Malware That Secretly Takes Over User PCs
According to reports, the incident occurred at the Federal Nuclear Center in Sarov, one of the many ¡°closed cities¡± built by the former Soviet Union for nuclear research. Civilians and travelers aren¡¯t allowed in, and they¡¯re not even marked on maps. A spokesperson for the facility said several of the scientists were detained after allegedly making an attempt to subvert the computers on site to mine virtual currency.
Mining cryptocurrency involves having a computer carry out complex strings of calculations, which define the blockchain. You¡¯re technically turning electricity into cryptocurrency, so the more compute power you have, the more cost-efficient your mining is.
For their efforts, the culprits were stopped before they managed to actually mint any money, and are now facing criminal charges in Russia. However, it¡¯s still unclear if they were trying to siphon computing power from regular PCs on site, or the centre¡¯s supercomputer.
They might have gotten away with it for a while, except it seems at least some of the computers at the site they were trying to use for their mining were meant to be left air-gapped. This is when a computer is kept blocked off from the Internet ever since its first startup, usually as a security precaution so hackers can¡¯t get at its data. When the scientists connected some of these air-gapped systems to the Internet to begin mining cryptocoins, they accidentally alerted the local security team.
Guess your mother was right, visiting the ¡°wrong websites¡± online CAN get you thrown in jail.
ALSO READ: Bitcoin Miners Are Using More Electricity Than Ireland & Other 159 Countries. No Kidding.
