Two Russians face jail for illegally mining crypto on state computers

[mlawson71]

Russian authorities are prosecuting a pair of individuals accused of using state computers to illegally mine cryptocurrencies.

Apparently the alleged perpetrators used computer hardware of state organizations to mine cryptocurrencies through web browsers.

The Russian authorities are yet to reveal the identities of the two individuals, but one of them is a resident of Kurgan and used almost a whole botnet in different regions of the country. The only information about the other is that a criminal case has been brought up against the Russian site JSC Rostovvodokanal for mining cryptocurrencies.

The deputy director of the National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents held a press-conference and said “In Russia, there have been two cases recently when people were brought to criminal responsibility for getting access to computers [of state organizations] and using them to mine cryptocurrencies.”

People do the weirdest things to mine cryptocurrencies more efficiently, I don't even think these two are the weirdest.

 

[Nobert]

,,In Russia, there have been two cases recently when people were brought to criminal responsibility for getting access to computers [of state organizations] and using them to mine cryptocurrencies.”

... , one of those, ,,Only in Russia''

 

[Snuskpelle]

I once calculated that I could earn 250k a year (at that time, but not in the earliest years obviously where difficulty was a lot lower) from mining Bitcoin on our customer's computers (video gamers) by embedding a miner into the game code, and simultaneously circumventing the nonsense complaint about game not using all available cores. Wouldn't have been great for our stock though as I'm sure it would have been discovered eventually.

 

[Nobert]

I once calculated that I could earn 250k a year (at that time, but not in the earliest years obviously where difficulty was a lot lower) from mining Bitcoin on our customer's computers (video gamers) by embedding a miner into the game code, and simultaneously circumventing the nonsense complaint about game not using all available cores. Wouldn't have been great for our stock though as I'm sure it would have been discovered eventually.

,,Someone week, - can't be good, because he is week by default and he cannot cause any harm anyways.
A really good person is someone, who has the power to do, the bad things, but instead he chooses to do good.''

- Jordan Peterson
(quotation might be messed up, sorry for that)

What was that made you - not to do so ?

Was is the fear of being caught, or
the good side of your personality, prevailed against the dark one ?

 

[Snuskpelle]

,,Someone week, - can't be good, because he is week by default and he cannot cause any harm anyways.
A really good person is someone, who has the power to do, the bad things, but instead he chooses to do good.''

- Jordan Peterson
(quotation might be messed up, sorry for that)

What was that made you not to do so ?

Was is the fear of being caught, or
the good side of your personality, prevailed against the dark one ?

A) Too large career risk
B) Goes against my law abiding nature

 

[Nobert]

A) Too large career risk

Rational calculation, RRR is not worth it.

B) Goes against my law abiding nature

Never heard of it, got to do some research.

 

[Tora]

Ahaha, that's really weird situation and I can't even imagine what they were thinking about. I hope they won't be in a jail for a long time, I don't think that it's a crime, that's jerk.

 

[mlawson71]

I am pretty sure the only thing they were thinking about was money.

 

[Snuskpelle]

Ahaha, that's really weird situation and I can't even imagine what they were thinking about. I hope they won't be in a jail for a long time, I don't think that it's a crime, that's jerk.

It's a crime but I agree there's no point to give long sentences for this unless they repeat it. Conditional sentence + requirement to pay illicit profits to the state would be appropriate. Of course I have no idea what actual Russian law says.

 

[Branos]

Wow, that's a pretty serious offense as far as I know, although I haven't really read or heard much about it. But either way, it's not a pleasant situation. In addition, I immediately thought about who spends a lot of time analyzing the situation and learning, and I understand that you can never really count on the easy way or that you can avoid punishment for dishonest actions. Especially nowadays, when you can track and calculate literally everything.