Two Russians Charged With Illicitly Mining Crypto on State Hardware

Two Russian citizens are being prosecuted for allegedly targeting computers at state organizations to illicitly mine cryptocurrency.

The two unnamed individuals purportedly infected the hardware with a program that mines cryptocurrency via a web browser, local media agency Tass reported on Dec. 16.

One of the suspects, a resident of the city of Kurgan, is reported to have created an extensive botnet to infect computers across various regions of the country. The second suspect reportedly focused his mining operations on hardware at the state water utility JSC Rostovvodokanal. 

Mining can use up to 80% of targets’ processing power, official warns

As reported, the illicit use of a computer’s processing power to mine for cryptocurrencies without the owner’s consent or knowledge is sometimes referred to as cryptojacking. 

While Tass does not disclose details of the cryptocurrency mined by the two suspects, malware such as a coin miner — based on Coinhive code – is one example of…