Chinese Hackers Mined $800k Worth Siacoin Hiddenly

According to the police, hackers in collusion with serving companies hacked 100,000 computers in Internet cafes in 30 Chinese cities

19 June 2018 494

In China, 16 people were arrested who earned $ 800,000 on the illegal mining of Siacoin cryptocurrency in the Internet cafes in dozens of Chinese cities, CoinDesk reports.

According to the police of Chinese Ruian (Zhejiang Province), hackers in collusion with serving companies hacked 100,000 computers in Internet cafes in 30 Chinese cities . Their income was 5 million yuan ($ 800,000).

Hackers used a malicious program that used the computing resources of infected devices to extract Siacoin crypto currency. Malicious software was sold to employees of computer maintenance companies who could download it to a PC in an Internet cafe during scheduled checks.

Suspicions arose in July 2017, when employees of Internet cafes in Ruyan noticed that their computers began to work very slowly. The CPU performance dropped by 70% even after the reboot.

Around the same time, the price of Siacoin according to CoinMarketCap grew by 400% from $ 0.002 in May to more than $ 0.01 in July. Accounts for utility services of Internet cafe Ruiana during this period also significantly increased. This caused their owners to contact the police.

Most Internet cafes in Ruian were served by one company. Its executive director was arrested in August last year, and disclosed information about hackers.

Mining Blockchain

South Korea to Allocate $880M for Tech Including DLT

The goal is to "focus on promoting big data and AI, developing blockchain technology to ensure data management security and boosting the sharing economy"

16 August 2018 99

In 2019, the government of South Korea plans to invest more than $ 880 million in accelerating the development of innovative technologies, such as blockchain, CoinDesk reports.

Deputy Prime Minister Kim Dong Yeon held a ministerial meeting to work out an investment plan for the government to develop innovations for the next five years.

According to the website of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of South Korea, the government allocated 1 trillion won (about 880 million dollars) - 80% more than in 2018 - for the development of technologies like blockchaain, big data and AI in 2019. In addition, the agency said that in the next 5 year total investments of 8-9 billion dollars are planed.

The goal is to "focus on promoting big data and AI, developing blockchain technology to ensure data management security and boosting the sharing economy," the press release said.

The investment plan does not specify how much money will be invested in each of these areas separately. There's no info wether it will be allocated to mining facilities.

Earlier, the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology of South Korea reported that in 2019 will allocate $ 9 million to invest in blockchain start-ups. In addition, in June it became known that the same ministry was cooperating with other state agencies on the development of six pilot programs, within which the block would be used in large government services.