Author | Fergus Hunter
Translator | Nuclear Cola
Editor’s note: Australian government employees use government supercomputers to mine cryptocurrencies, but they earn less than 10,000 yuan from mining for a month. However, due to the use of computing power by employees, many government research projects have lost computing power, and eventually the computing power and other resources worth 76,668 US dollars were lost due to mining.
A former employee of the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Engineering Research Organization (CSIRO) used government supercomputers to mine cryptocurrency, which caused many important scientific projects to fail to obtain the necessary computing power, but eventually escaped prison. Mining for a month, harvested 9420 US dollars
The former employee’s name is Jonathan Khoo, and he served as a federal government scientific research agency contractor from January to February 2018. Taking advantage of his position, he installed, installed and ran 2,903 command scripts on two supercomputers to conduct cryptocurrency mining for personal gain.
It is reported that in addition to CSIRO, one of the supercomputers is also used by many other governments and research organizations, including the Royal Australian Navy and the Victor Chang Heart Institute.
The 34-year-old Khoo used a supercomputer to mine for more than a month, obtained $9,420 worth of cryptocurrency, and deposited the illegal proceeds into his own Ethereum and Monero digital wallet. CSIRO estimates that this mining activity cost them $76,668 worth of computing power and other resources.
Khoo’s illegal activities were discovered in February 2018, and the CSIRO immediately dismissed him. The Australian Federal Police executed a search warrant in March of the same year and prosecuted him a year later. Khoo confessed his crime almost immediately after being searched. And expressed “very regret”.
No need to serve a sentence in prison
On September 11, Magistrate Erin Kennedy sentenced the Sydney resident to 15 months imprisonment, but appointed him to serve the sentence in his community instead of going to prison. Khoo also needs to complete 300 hours of community service and continue to receive questions. Based on 300 hours of community service, Khoo’s secret mining allowed him to earn the equivalent of $23 an hour.
Federal police cybercrime operations commander Chris Goldsmid commented after the verdict that this behavior undermined the public’s trust in the government and compromised the ability of the CSIRO supercomputer to handle important legal tasks. He explained: “The behavior of the persons involved in the case has prevented the supercomputer resources from properly performing many major scientific studies in Australia, including pulsar data array analysis, medical research, and climate modeling.”
Khoo’s lawyer, Avni Djemal, emphasized in court that his client had no criminal record before, confessed his wrongdoing when facing police interrogation, showed a sincere attitude of pleading guilty, and was willing to bear the consequences for his actions. Lost his job after the case came to light.
The judge read out the verdict in the Downing Center District Court, saying that Khoo’s guilty pleas and other performances are indeed worthy of recognition, but he still emphasized that the verdict must serve as a general deterrent.
Kennedy pointed out that the Khoo case is indeed lower in severity compared to other cases where offenders invaded the government system. However, the losses suffered by scientific research institutions such as CSIRO are also losses, and corresponding punishments must be implemented.
It is reported that Australia’s maximum penalty for such crimes (including unauthorized data tampering and causing damage) is ten years in prison.
Goldsmid said that the current malicious network activities, including those inside the organization, continue to increase in scale and severity. He urged companies and government agencies to establish a strong cyber security culture and continuously enhance their ability to detect violations.
