CSIRO Contractor Escapes Jail For Illegal Supercomputer Mining

Former Australian Government Contractor Jonathan Hu was sentenced to 300 hours of correctional labor for the use of research supercomputers for mining ETH and XMR in 2018 year.

Former contractor of the state association of scientific and applied studies of Australia (CSIRO) was convicted of using supercomputers for mining cryptocurrencies in 2018 year. He managed to avoid maximum punishment in the form 10 years of imprisonment, Instead, the court appointed him 300 hours of correctional labor.

Jonathan Hu (Jonathan khoo) used supercomputers of the state research organization for mining ETH and XMR. According to the press release of the Australian Federal Police, Cryptocurrency mining in January 2018 year brought him approximately $6 850, At the same time, CSIRO was damaged by no less $55 400 Due to a decrease in performance and incorrect configuration of supercomputers.

Chris Goldsmid police officer (Chris Goldsmid) He said in a press release, that Kh “distracted the resources of supercomputers from the implementation of important scientific research for the country, including medical research and work to measure the effects of climate change on the environment ".

Hu found himself guilty of charges of unauthorized data change, entailing harm, in a local court in February 2020 of the year. The charges provide maximum punishment before 10 years of imprisonment, and the relatively soft punishment of Hu is partly associated with his repentance and cooperation with law enforcement agencies.

“The consequences are obvious - it was the abuse of the trust of the Australian taxpayers by the CSIRO employee, motivated by personal benefit and greed ", Goldsmid said.

According to ItNews, The presiding justice of peace Erin Kennedy (Erin Kennedy) noted the importance of that, that the government research organization has become a fraudster target. She emphasized, that public resources could be caused more damage, if Kh - other subject had more malicious goals.

Recall, that in March, a former Baidu employee was convicted of mining on the servers of the company, And in February, a specialist of the Kyiv state -owned company "Information Judicial Systems" was convicted of illegal mining. Besides, Last year, a former employee of the nuclear center in Sarov was fined for mining on a supercomputer.

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