It is a well-known fact that mining cryptocurrency requires heavy computing power and there is no better place than a nuclear power plant with all the required resources.
In a surprising incident, employees of Ukranian nuclear plant connected the internal part of the plant to the internet for mining cryptocurrency. The incident happened in July at the South Ukraine Nuclear Power plant.
Local authorities are investigating the matter as the nuclear power plant is a critical infrastructure and the authorities are checking whether the incident leaked state secrets. There are chances that bad actors might have used the mining rigs to grab hold of secrets like the plant’s physical defenses.
The incident came to light when SBU (Ukranian Secret Service) raided the nuclear plant’s administration offices and found equipment meant for mining cryptocurrency.
The authorities seized the equipment including basic computer parts fitted in a metal case, video cards and coolers. As per the court documents, one metal case had 6 Radeon RX 470 GPU video cards and the other had 5 such cards.
As per reports, many employees of the nuclear plant have been charged with connecting the plant to the internet but no arrests have been made so far.
The incident is seemed to be inspired by the fact that cryptocurrency trading price has increased in the recent time after witnessing a steep decline since last year. Recently, Bitcoin crossed the $10,000 mark for the first time in a year.
