Chinese hackers and corrupt Internet providers form a dangerous latent mining alliance

Chinese Internet cafes have become compromised by hackers who have established a working and beneficial mechanism of remote cryptocurrency mining. As reported by the news outlet called Hangzhou, the cryptocurrency mined by hackers was Siacoin.

The situation becomes even more dangerous considering that those hackers cooperated with local Internet providers. Reports tell about cafes in 30 affected cities of China. Police has already apprehended sixteen suspects in Rui'An city, Zhejiang province.

The crime was unveiled after the performance and electricity bills checks by cafe owners. The hardware worked at a peak capacity while consuming vast amounts of energy.

According to Article 286 from the Chinese Penal Code, when a hacker causes “abnormal operations” in computers belonging to other persons and the consequences of such actions can be considered serious, the punishment can be no less than 5 years in prison. The organizers of the criminal scheme are likely to receive a bigger sentence than the accomplices - this is a wider principle established in the legislation of China.

By the way, sometimes the government itself can illegally get cryptocurrencies unbeknownst to citizens, as witnessed from the old reports on Egypt. Mining has been caused by providers through redirecting to the malicious Web pages.

Image: Seth Rosenblatt / The Parallax