Korean media reports: Food Research Institute chief indicted for secretly setting up Bitcoin servers at company to mine Bitcoin

An employee of the Korea Food Research Institute was found to have been engaged in Bitcoin mining using a graphics processing unit (GPU) purchased with the company's budget and was dismissed.
The employee was also accused of embezzlement and theft by the company, and was charged by the police without detention.
According to the 2024 Korea Food Research Institute Specific Audit Report, Director A of the Korea Food Research Institute used 12 GPUs to build a Bitcoin mining server and operated it in a way that employees rarely had to enter or leave.
The director of the department used the warehouse in the public relations building for personal purposes, installing air conditioners, electrical work, and motion sensors using the research institute's budget.
In addition, Director A also changed the password for the door lock at the entrance to the warehouse to prevent this fact from being discovered.
The Audit Committee stated that Director A's installation of an air conditioner in a warehouse within the public relations division was "a Bitcoin mining facility"
"PU servers consume a considerable amount of electricity and generate high heat at the same time," the company explained, "and it is believed that this was due to the need to maintain a constant temperature and a stable power supply."
As a result of the investigation, it was revealed that Director A had purchased LTE for use outside the institute to connect to the network required for bitcoin mining and electronic wallet management.
The hackers connected to the internet without permission using a router and mined Bitcoin by circumventing the Food Research Institute's information protection system.
In addition, the head of the department, A, was a staff member of the Food Research Institute at the time and is now a professor at the University of Tokyo, in order to connect to the server from outside.
Through Mr. B, who had moved to a professorship at a university, he built a bypass program and illegally recorded attendance records. Through this, Mr. B used a backdoor program to
It was revealed that Mr. B had leaked important research materials from the institute to the outside. Mr. B purchased a GPU using the ID of an employee of his affiliation, and two mining servers were discovered and seized during an investigation of information assets.
Once caught, they also forged and altered previously submitted GPU purchase applications in an attempt to recover the seized Bitcoin mining GPU servers.
The audit committee, which conducted a preliminary audit from May 30 to 31 and an on-site audit from June 4 to 28, determined that Director A had paid 7,862,990 won (approximately 862,000 yen) to the institute.
The Audit Committee decided that Mr. B might destroy the evidence that he had leaked, and on June 14th, it dismissed Mr. B.
The company has filed a complaint with the Cyber Investigation Unit of the Jeollabuk-do Police Department. The company has also filed a complaint with the police against Director A on suspicion of violating the Information and Communications Network Act. In addition, the company has filed a complaint with the information system administrator and other related parties.
The company also took disciplinary action against the director and requested the Food Research Institute to review its server operations. Director A is accused of breach of trust, theft, and violations of the Law on Promotion of Information and Communications Network Utilization and Information Protection.
The police issued an indictment without detention.