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posted by martyb on Saturday February 10 2018, @09:34PM   Printer-friendly
from the in-post-Soviet-Russia-... dept.

Well, we've seen past stories on viruses co-opting Raspberry Pi units to mine cryptocurrency, and websites mining a few coins on their viewers' systems, but it took some crafty boffins in Russia to really give the issue some scale. International Business Times has the story, dated 9 Feb 2018...

Russian security officials arrested a number of scientists working at a secret Russian nuclear weapons facility for allegedly using lab equipment to mine for cryptocurrencies, according to Russia's Interfax News Agency.

[The facility's computers are] supposed to be isolated; they are kept disconnected from the internet in order to prevent any outside intrusion or hacking efforts. That was violated by the engineers who decided to use the supercomputer rigs to mine for cryptocurrency.

Mining for cryptocurrency requires a considerable amount of processing power—something the average computer might struggle to provide but a supercomputer designed for work on nuclear weapons surely has the capacity for.

The story does not specify the cryptocurrency or cryptocurrencies the scientists were trying to mine, nor whether any mining was successful.


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  • (Score: 2) by requerdanos on Saturday February 10 2018, @10:53PM (5 children)

    by requerdanos (5997) Subscriber Badge on Saturday February 10 2018, @10:53PM (#636151) Journal

    Actually it raises a broader question - how many people or organizations have used supercomputer/cluster time for the specific and legitimate purpose of mining cryptocurrency?

    I have been thinking that I am very moral and upstanding. But I must confess that if I worked in a lab with supercomputers, and read this article, it would set the wheels in my brain turning in the direction of finding some reason to "research" a CPU-mined cryptocurrency to extend scientific knowledge in that area. (I'll even contribute the wallet to use; here is its payment address...)

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  • (Score: 4, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Saturday February 10 2018, @11:05PM (4 children)

    by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Saturday February 10 2018, @11:05PM (#636158) Homepage

    It seems like just another case of the rich becoming richer, unless it's profitable for average Joe Shit the Ragman to rent a time slot or subset of cluster components.

    Then there is the potential for security breaches if the cluster is networked to the rest of the world.

    I know people who bought in Bitcoin early and kept them through the original crash, now they have made huge profits. I choose not to engage in any cryptos because I consider it a form of speculation (or, more informally, "economic voodoo"), and as a rule I don't gamble more than 20 dollars in one session. Besides, booze is a much better vice because you know you're going to get your money's worth of intoxication.

    • (Score: 0, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 11 2018, @01:01AM (3 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 11 2018, @01:01AM (#636191)

      Got tired of AC trolling huh?

      • (Score: 2, Troll) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 11 2018, @01:23AM (1 child)

        by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday February 11 2018, @01:23AM (#636198) Homepage

        Soylentnews has disallowed me from AC trolling. When I post under AC I get the "excessive bad posting" warning. Besides, if you think an AC troll is me, compare the writing styles.

        If you're too stupid to understand spoken style, I suggest you head to the comment section of ArsTechnica. They say all the things you like, and none of what you don't.

        Niggers.

        Sorry, I have a disability, Tourette's syndrome. It causes me to say "niggers," including bold tags, at inopportune moments.

        • (Score: 3, Funny) by Ethanol-fueled on Sunday February 11 2018, @01:49AM

          by Ethanol-fueled (2792) on Sunday February 11 2018, @01:49AM (#636205) Homepage

          Modded down for a disability. Perhaps I should move to India, where my third-but-useless arm would classify me as a demigod. I'm surrounded by bigots.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 11 2018, @01:48AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday February 11 2018, @01:48AM (#636204)

        Said the AC troll...