Ukrainian authorities have uncovered an illegal cryptomining facility that used illegal electricity to operate and whose activities were mainly carried out via gaming consoles.
Ukrainian authorities have uncovered an illegal cryptomining facility that used illegal electricity to operate and whose activities were mainly carried out via gaming consoles.
Cryptomining itself is not illegal, but it does involve high electricity costs, so such activities are not particularly profitable. In some cases, criminals prefer to hijack computers remotely and use them for cryptomining, or simply steal electricity from the grid to increase their profits.
A department of the Ukrainian State Security Service (SBU), together with the SBU office in the Vinnytsia region and the Ukrainian police under the direction of the Ukrainian Prosecutor General's Office, conducted a large-scale operation in an old warehouse belonging to the company JSC Vinnytsiaoblenerho.
“According to preliminary estimates, monthly losses to the state amounted to between UAH 5 and 7 million (USD 186,200 to USD 259,300),” authorities said . “Such illegal activities could also lead to fluctuations in electricity supply and power outages. The SBU initiated criminal proceedings for the theft of water, electricity or heat energy through unauthorized use.”
Police confiscated a lot of hardware that shows the scale of the farm and explains the high power consumption:
· 3,800 game consoles
· more than 500 graphics cards
· 50 processors
· Documentation on power consumption
· Notebooks, phones, flash memory
While crackdowns by authorities around the world have dealt a blow to illegal cryptocurrency mining in recent months, the activity continues. Legally operating cryptominers find it difficult to cover their costs, so this whole area is slowly slipping into crime, where fraudsters find ways to get the electricity they need without paying.
Source: Bitdefender
Article Image: By Funtap / Shutterstock.com
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