Cybersecurity firms have identified an exponential rise in crypto-related scams in Russia during the first half of 2020. Researchers identified 23,000 sites involved with crypto scams that are still online and targeting new victims. According to Kommersant, which cited research from Kaspersky Labs, the problem is three times greater than during the same period last year. One common example sees victims offered the chance to complete surveys in order to receive commissions — however they’re required to pay an “entrance fee” fee first. Another scam, identified by Qrator Labs, involved sites that offered victims more than $275 per hour to …
Hackers have attacked multiple supercomputers across Europe this week with the intention of mining cryptocurrency. Clusters of supercomputers have been forced to shut down in order to investigate the intrusions, according to a ZDNet news report on May 16. These security incidents were reported in the UK, Germany, and Switzerland. Additionally, another possible attack occurred in a high-performance computer center in Spain, according to the report. College campuses are the main victims Most of the attacks appear to have targeted universities. University of Edinburgh,which runs the ARCHER supercomputer, reported the first incident on Monday. Then, major universities’ high-performance computing clusters …
Russian police have caught Bitcoin miners who were stealing $200,000 worth of electricity each month in their efforts to mine cryptocurrency. According to a statement released by the Russian Interior Ministry, a Saint Petersburg suspect has been arrested, along with nine alleged accomplices. The criminals managed to install sophisticated infrastructure that connects mining equipment to the country’s electricity supply at eight different locations, the Interior Ministry stated. Seized elements during the raids In total, the Russian National Guard seized 1,500 pieces of mining equipment, 2 million rubles, smartphones that contained incriminating messages, and 100 altered electrical meters over the course …
Privacy-focused cryptocurrency Grin has completed the first hardfork so far on its mainnet. The fork occurred at block height 262,080 on July 17, as shown on the Grin block explorer Blockscan. According to an official announcement from Grin core dev Quentin Le Sceller, the latest blockchain hardfork is designed to discourage Grin mining through dedicated application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) and also includes a new iteration of its bulletproof rewind scheme for Grin wallets. As previously discussed by Cuckoo Cycle author John Tromp, there is reportedly no sign of users deploying ASICs to mine Grin yet; however, Grin’s secondary Proof-of-Work …
Cryptocurrency miners in Russia appear to be unbothered by the ongoing crisis of crypto mining as the local demand for mining hardware has reportedly been on the surge in Q4 2022. Some crypto mining hardware distributors in Russia have faced a significant spike in demand for mining-designed application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) chips, the local news agency Kommersant reported on Dec. 1. Local dealer Chilkoot reported its ASIC sales in November and October exceeded its entire sales made in Q3. Over the past nine months, the distributor reportedly sold 65% more hardware than in 2021. “We are working with legal entities, …