The new miners: wave of cryptocurrency mining at colleges, businesses raise hacking conc…

It was the first day of freshmen year at Penn State’s State College campus, and along with bed sheets, clothing and books, Patrick Cines had an unusual looking computer. He did not plan to write term papers or do research on it.

Instead, Cines planned on using it to make money while he was out experiencing campus life.

“I had basically a box, maybe a foot and a half by a foot and a half tall. It was sitting in, right at the foot of my bed. Had several graphics cards,” said Cines, who graduated Penn State in 2017.

That odd computer box was what is known a cryptocurrency miner, a special machine used to find virtual currency. Cryptocurrency mining is a process used to create digital coins, like bitcoin. Computers are used to solve complex math problems to find coins that can be potentially worth a fortune.

Many currencies require specialized, high powered machines that use large amounts of electricity, and create excess heat.

“It felt like passive income because when you’re at…