The cryptocurrency fever can push people to a variety of ill-advised steps. In Russia, a group of employees of a nuclear research center in Sarov were detained by the Federal Security Service (FSB) for “unauthorized use” of the facility’s supercomputers to mine cryptocurrency.
The news was reported last week by the online publication TJournal, which cited the nuclear center’s press service.
Criminal charges were launched against the detained employees, who may reportedly be sentenced to up to 20 years in prison for “state treason.”
Established in Sarov (Nizhny Novgorod region) since 1947, Russian Federal Nuclear Center – All-Russian Scientific Research Institute of Experimental Physics (RFNC – RSRIEP) is one of the most important nuclear research center in Russia.
The cryptocurrency mining attempts were detected “at a range of major companies with significant computational capacity,” in addition to their facility, the press service added, without disclosing the names of said companies.
The Sarov supercomputer was launched in 2011, being the most powerful machine in Russia at that time.
In a separate incident, on February 6, a miner from the Russian Far East set his apartment building afire due to a short circuit allegedly caused by overheated equipment for cryptocurrency mining.
