Man convicted of crypto-mining via CSIRO equipment

Australia: Imprisonment for a man who committed crypto-mining attacks using CSIRO government agency equipment.

A 34-year-old man from Sydney has been convicted by the Australian Federal Police (AFP) of using government research agency equipment Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), with the aim of conducting crypto-mining attacks.

The accused was hired in January 2018 and had access to servers and supercomputers CSIRO (which it later used for crypto-mining) to perform its archiving tasks data and software support.

Police said the 34-year-old from Sydney had access to the servers and supercomputers used for the conducting formal scientific research. However, the accused modified data within these systems, without authorization, to carry out crypto-mining for personal gain.

The man is said to have managed to steal $ 9.400 worth of cryptocurrency.

His crime analysis unit cyberspace AFP has launched an investigation following a briefing by CSIRO. The agency identified "serious damage to its infrastructure”And reported it immediately to police. In March 2018, officials did research at the home of the accused and confiscated a laptop, a mobile phone and other items.

The man was formally charged in May 2019 with abusing the computer programs of a federal government service, for crypto-mining, while working for service.

As we read on ZDNet, the 34-year-old pleaded guilty on 28 February 2020 and has now been sentenced to 15 months in prison, which includes 300 hours of community service.

The commander of AFP Cybercrime Analysis Unit, Chris Goldsmid, said: "This man's activities prevented supercomputers from doing what they ought to do, namely conducting important scientific research on the nation, including Pulsar Data Array Analysis, medical research, and climate work to measure the effects of climate change on the environment.".

"The consequences are clear - abuse of Australian trust taxpayers by one employee of the government, motivated by personal gain and απληστία", Said the commander.