In a major theft, around 600 powerful computers used to mine bitcoin and cryptocurrencies were stolen in Iceland. The police reportedly said that around $2 million worth computers, which were taken from datacenters, are yet to be traced.
The police have arrested around 11 people including a security guard.
The computers were stolen in four burglaries. The police have been tracking unusual electric consumption across the country to trace whether these computers are used for crypto currency mining.
Iceland is considered a favorite place for cryptocurrency miners for the availability of power, which in abundance is required for the mining process.
In mid February, Iceland's energy company HS Orka had warned that the country runs the risk of exhausting its energy sources this year if consumption for cryptocurrency mining exceeds household power use. Officials from the energy company told the BBC that they would not have sufficient energy to meet the demand from the several Bitcoin mining centers proposed.
In a separate incident, in February, electric car maker Tesla Inc. had become a victim of cryptojacking, in which hackers used its cloud system to mine cryptocurrency, according to cybersecurity software firm RedLock.
Cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, are mined by solving complex mathematical problems as a means to verify virtual currency transactions. The owners of the computers involved in mining will be rewarded with new digital tokens or coins, called cryprocurrency.
The significant growth in demand for cryptocurrencies with its skyrocketing vale has prompted hackers around the world to steal computer power to mine coins in organizations' public cloud environments.
Bitcoin, which was $1000 a coin more than a year ago, had reached an all time high of near $20,000 in mid December. Currently it is trading around $11,500.
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