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Hidden Bitcoin Mine Found in Russian Truck
Utility engineers tracing an unexplained load spike opened the vehicle’s rear doors to find 95 mining rigs wired to a mobile transformer and illegally tapped into a 10-kilovolt feeder—enough juice to light an entire village. Two men linked to the operation sped off in an SUV before police arrived.
Local grid operator Buryatenergo says this is the sixth instance of electricity theft for crypto mining it has uncovered in 2025, and warns that makeshift connections are destabilizing rural distribution networks with brownouts and potential blackouts.
Regional rules already forbid mining for most of the winter—15 November through 15 March—while only licensed firms may operate in a handful of districts the rest of the year.
The crackdown mirrors nationwide restrictions. Moscow barred mining during peak-demand months in Dagestan, Chechnya, and occupied parts of eastern Ukraine last December, then slapped a year-round ban on Irkutsk in April—even though the province hosts BitRiver’s flagship data center, once prized for ultra-cheap hydroelectric power.
Illicit activity isn’t limited to stolen grid power. Security firm Kaspersky recently tied the hacker collective “Librarian Ghouls” to a cryptojacking campaign that hijacked hundreds of Russian PCs via booby-trapped email attachments, disabled Windows Defender, and quietly mined coins between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. while siphoning passwords for later use. Together, the truck bust and stealthy malware spree highlight the growing cat-and-mouse battle between Russian authorities and a crypto underground hungry for free energy and quiet profits.
#Bitcoin - #CryptoNews - #CardanoDebate - #IsraelIranConflict $BTC $ETH $BNB
Local grid operator Buryatenergo says this is the sixth instance of electricity theft for crypto mining it has uncovered in 2025, and warns that makeshift connections are destabilizing rural distribution networks with brownouts and potential blackouts.
Regional rules already forbid mining for most of the winter—15 November through 15 March—while only licensed firms may operate in a handful of districts the rest of the year.
The crackdown mirrors nationwide restrictions. Moscow barred mining during peak-demand months in Dagestan, Chechnya, and occupied parts of eastern Ukraine last December, then slapped a year-round ban on Irkutsk in April—even though the province hosts BitRiver’s flagship data center, once prized for ultra-cheap hydroelectric power.
Illicit activity isn’t limited to stolen grid power. Security firm Kaspersky recently tied the hacker collective “Librarian Ghouls” to a cryptojacking campaign that hijacked hundreds of Russian PCs via booby-trapped email attachments, disabled Windows Defender, and quietly mined coins between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. while siphoning passwords for later use. Together, the truck bust and stealthy malware spree highlight the growing cat-and-mouse battle between Russian authorities and a crypto underground hungry for free energy and quiet profits.
#Bitcoin - #CryptoNews - #CardanoDebate - #IsraelIranConflict $BTC $ETH $BNB
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