Ukrainian Authorities Seize Crypto Miners from Nuclear Power Plant

Ukranian law enforcement has uncovered and confiscated multiple cryptocurrency mining equipment from a state-owned nuclear power plant.

According to local news agency Internetua, the pieces of computer equipment were discovered during a raid by the Security Service of Ukraine at one of the offices located in the administrative wing of the South Ukrainian Nuclear Power Plant.

Among the confiscated equipment were six Radeon RX 470 GPU video cards, a motherboard, power supplies and extension cords, a USB and hard drive, and cooling units which were installed at the power plant.

Operated by the state-owned Energoatom enterprise, the power plant is registered as a state secret, meaning no outside computing devices are allowed within its premises. According to the local media, a criminal proceeding has been initiated by the authorities under the suspicion of any data leakage from the secure power plant.

A sealed site with no security?

Meanwhile, a branch of the National Guard of Ukraine, in another raid on the same day at the same nuclear site, uncovered additional sets of digital currency mining equipment. The unit confiscated 16 video cards, a system unit with the inventory number of the military unit, seven hard drives, two solid-state drives, a USB flash drive, and a router.

Though the authorities did not disclose any details of the mining activity with the equipment, the nature of the equipment shows that the perpetrators were indulged in mining GPU-centric digital currencies like Ethereum.

In June, Finance Magnates reported that Ukrainian security officers were examining the computers of the State Judicial Administration as the facilities were infected with malware designed to steal their computing power and secretly mine cryptocurrency.

Last year, Ukraine authorities said they have no plans to regulate cryptocurrency mining, and warned miners that they could face hefty fines or having their equipment confiscated.