Russian Nuclear scientists have been arrested after using a supercomputer to mine Cryptocurrencies

Several of Russia’s Nuclear scientists have been arrested today after allegedly using one of the country’s most powerful supercomputers to mine cryptocurrencies, a system that is capable of 1 petaflop of computing performance and is designed to simulate nuclear weapon designs and their destructive capacity.  

The head of the Federal Nuclear Centre’s press office, Tatyana Zalesskaya, has stated that “There has been an unsanctioned attempt to use computer facilities for private purposes including so-called mining”. At this time it is unknown what cryptocurrency, or cryptocurrencies the researchers attempted to mine, or how many employees have been detained by the FSB (Federal Security Service). 

Being a machine that handles highly sensitive and classified material, the supercomputer used in this crime was never intended to be connected to the internet, something that is a requirement for mining cryptocurrencies. In the eyes of the Russian government, this could be seen as treason, as internet access leaves the highly sensitive data on the system open to intrusion. The Russian news organisation Interfax has stated that “As far as we are aware, a criminal case has been launched against them,[the alleged cryptominers]”.  

It has been reported that it was the supercomputers connection to the internet was what alerted Russian security services to the issue, allowing them to act immediately.