The police in Japan are cracking down on the illegal use of personal computers for cryptocurrency mining. Multiple prefectural police departments are currently investigating one particular case and pursuing criminal charges, which would make it the first criminal case in Japan where computers are illegally used for mining cryptocurrencies.
Also read: Yahoo! Japan Confirms Entrance Into the Crypto Space
Police to Press Charges
A police investigation is underway in Japan over the hijacking of personal computers to mine cryptocurrencies, the Mainichi reported.
“According to investigative sources, people involved in the case set up websites in the fall of 2017 to install a program on viewers’ computers and use the machines for mining the monero cryptocurrency,” the news outlet conveyed, elaborating:
If police press charges, it will be the first case in Japan where illegal use of computers in cryptocurrency mining would become a criminal case. The incident is being pursued jointly by multiple prefectural police departments including those in Kanagawa, Chiba and Tochigi in central Japan.
Growing Use of Coinhive
Three people are being investigated including a website designer for using a web browser-based mining program, Coinhive, to mine crypto using website visitors’ computers. The program, freely available online, allows website owners to mine cryptocurrencies using the processing power of their visitors’ devices.
Japanese cyber security and defense company founded in Los Angeles, Trend Micro, detected 181,376 terminals running mining software from January through March this year in Japan, the publication conveyed, adding that this is a substantial increase from 767 in the same period a year ago.
However, not all uses of the mining program are malicious. Last month, Unicef Australia launched a website to allow visitors to donate computer power to mine cryptocurrency using Authedmine –
