• The hacker reportedly made one hundred thousand attempts to create a password within an hour
• The Federal Security Service of Russia have now passed the case to the Kurgan City Court
• If found guilty, the cybercriminal faces up to five years in prison

Russian authorities have arrested a 21-year-old resident of Kurgan for illegally hacking government-owned servers for bitcoin mining. According to a local news source URA.RU report on October 16, 2018, the activity of the cryptocriminal hampered key governmental services in the Chelyabinsk, Oryol and Yaroslavl regions as well as the Altai Republic.

Russian Hijacks Government Servers to Mine Cryptocurrency

Even with the current bear market, cryptocriminals are still finding ways to illegally enrich themselves with bitcoin and other digital assets.

Now Russian authorities are prosecuting a 21-year-old man for allegedly hacking government servers in the Chelyabinsk, Oryol, Yaroslavl regions and Altai Republic, to mine bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Per sources close to the matter, the cyberpunk made more than a hundred thousand attempts to break into the system within an hour, before finally succeeding.

Although the exact amount of bitcoin mined by the hacker was undisclosed, security agents of the Yaroslavl region say the kurgan received huge ‘cash reward to his e-wallet.’

Cyberpunk May be Jailed for Five Years

According to URA.RU, the matter was entirely investigated by the criminal investigation unit of the Federal Security Service of Russia in the Kurgan region.

The agency have now passed on the case to the Kurgan City Court which will decide the fate of the criminal shortly.

In accordance with the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation, “the use of computer programs to hack computer protection tools for selfish interests is punishable with five years’ imprisonment.”

Cryptojacking on the Rise

It is worth noting that this is not the first time a Russian citizen have tried to use the Russian government’s systems to mine crypto.

In February 2018, reports emerged that Russian nuclear scientists had been arrested for trying to mine bitcoin with supercomputers at the nation’s Federal Nuclear Center.

“There has been an illegal attempt to use computer facilities for private purposes including so called mining. As far as we are concerned a criminal case has been launched against them,” said the organization at the time.

As reported  by Blockchain Reporter on August 30, 2018, the rate of cryptojacking has surged by at least 956 percent in 2018 and these criminals are getting more and more sophisticated with each passing day.