Two Crypto Miners Accused of Hacking Missouri Tech Company’s Cloud Account — And Collecting $760K Server Fee

Cryptocurrency mining requires a large amount of computing power to drive the complex algorithms used to generate the currency. When the programs ran, prosecutors said, it resulted in large costs being added to the St. Charles, Mo. The company is identified in court papers only by its initials, TT .

Prosecutors said the company was not aware of the breach until it received a bill from Microsoft for $760.00 for the use of additional server capacity.

The defendants, Danial Jeloudar and Saeeid Safaei, were indicted this week on charges of conspiracy to commit wire fraud. They are believed to be living abroad and not under house arrest. They could not be immediately reached for comment, and it appears they have withheld attorneys.

Jeloudar was previously indicted in the United States in 2016 for allegedly trading stolen credit card numbers and purchasing goods using a hijacked credit card account. He was never detained in that case.

Cryptocurrencies have provided new avenues for hackers to make money, and cyberattacks have been on the rise in recent years. In many cases, hackers will break into the devices of many people and together exploit their computing power to control cryptocurrency schemes. Users often get hit when they download something corrupted with malware.

A hack like this usually causes minimal disruption to the user, so it’s easy for hackers to take over the machine for months. For example, if your smart TV isn’t running well, a crypto intruder can be blamed. Some people don’t know they’re a target until they find they have unusually high electricity bills.

Experts say the advice to home computer users is that their machine may have been hacked if the battery on their device is constantly overheating or if their device is shutting down due to lack of processing power.