Russian scientists arrested for mining cryptocurrencies in a nuclear laboratory
Reports suggest that several scientists working at a Russian nuclear weapons research facility have been arrested for mining cryptocurrencies at the site.
Reports from Interfax and the BBC indicate that unidentified scientists have been handed over to the Federal Security Service (FSB) after the discovery.
"There has been an unauthorized attempt to use the computer facilities for private purposes, including the so-called mining," said a representative of the Institute of Scientific Research for Experimental Physics.
According to reports, the scientists used a supercomputer in the facility to carry out the extraction, which is a process of high energy consumption through which new transactions are added to a chain of blocks (while coining new currencies in the process as reward).
The security department of the research center received an alert that the machine had connected to the Internet (for security reasons, according to the sources, these computers are usually kept offline).
Interfax added that scientists are likely to face criminal charges in the wake of their arrests.
Founded in 1947, the Institute is famous for being the site where the former Soviet Union produced its first nuclear bomb.