Advertisement
Australia markets closed

  • ALL ORDS

    7,937.50
    -0.40 (-0.01%)
     

  • ASX 200

    7,683.00
    -0.50 (-0.01%)
     

  • AUD/USD

    0.6488
    -0.0012 (-0.18%)
     

  • OIL

    82.39
    -0.42 (-0.51%)
     

  • GOLD

    2,328.30
    -10.10 (-0.43%)
     

  • Bitcoin AUD

    97,371.55
    -4,452.68 (-4.37%)
     

  • CMC Crypto 200

    1,345.23
    -37.35 (-2.71%)
     

  • AUD/EUR

    0.6070
    0.0000 (0.00%)
     

  • AUD/NZD

    1.0955
    +0.0014 (+0.12%)
     

  • NZX 50

    11,946.43
    +143.15 (+1.21%)
     

  • NASDAQ

    17,526.80
    +55.33 (+0.32%)
     

  • FTSE

    8,049.48
    +9.10 (+0.11%)
     

  • Dow Jones

    38,460.92
    -42.77 (-0.11%)
     

  • DAX

    17,852.93
    -235.77 (-1.30%)
     

  • Hang Seng

    17,284.54
    +83.27 (+0.48%)
     

  • NIKKEI 225

    37,628.48
    -831.60 (-2.16%)
     

Ex-Employee at Australian Science Agency Avoids Prison After Mining Crypto on Supercomputers

Sebastian Sinclair
Updated ·2-min read

A former employee of an Australian federal agency has avoided prison after he was caught using government supercomputers to mine for cryptocurrency.

  • According to a report by The Sydney Morning Herald on Friday, Jonathan Khoo, 34, worked as a contractor for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).

  • Between January and February 2018, Khoo implemented code in two supercomputers for the purpose of mining cryptocurrency for his own personal financial gain.

  • Khoo was able to mine ether and monero worth a reported A$9,420 (US$6,897), which he deposited into his own personal wallets.

  • The CSIRO estimated Khoo’s illegal mining pursuits cost the agency A$76,668 (US$56,133) worth of computing power and other resources.

  • Magistrate Erin Kennedy handed Khoo a 15-month intensive correction order on Friday; he will serve out his sentence via 300 hours of community service plus counseling.

  • After being discovered in February 2018, Australian federal police issued a search warrant and arrested Khoo later that month, the report said.

  • His actions “diverted” valuable computing power resources away from “significant scientific research,” federal police cybercrime operations commander Chris Goldsmid said, including “data array analysis, medical research and climate modeling work.”

  • The disgraced employee’s lawyer told the local court that Khoo had no prior offenses and was remorseful for his actions.

  • Magistrate Kennedy on handing down the sentence acknowledged Khoo’s guilty plea, but noted it was significant the CSIRO had been targeted and said Khoo’s sentence had to act as a general deterrent.

  • In Australia, the maximum penalty for the crime – unauthorized modification of data to cause impairment – carries a sentence of 10 years imprisonment.

See also: Australian Conman Extradited Over Alleged Fraud Involving $1.2M in Bitcoin

Related Stories