Many college students are hogging university networks and power consumption because of cryptomining

[captain_to_fire]

15 minutes ago, RKRiley said:

Oh there's a sticker on the case.. Apparently its running an Intel pentium II.

This reminds me. Kids nowadays don't know how noisy PCs during the Pentium II to IV era are during boot up. 

Edited April 4, 2018 by hey_yo_

[Ryujin2003]

1 minute ago, Teddy07 said:

I talked to someone with the students association. He said that someone was caught their association PCs to mine Bitcoin. I don't quite understand it, because I assume it only makes a cent a week or so. I don´t mine so I don´t know.

I feel like there is more to not making money from school resources than the admin trying to control the student population. I feel there is more legal stuff that we aren't necessarily aware of.

[leadeater]

7 minutes ago, Ryujin2003 said:

I feel like there is more to not making money from school resources than the admin trying to control the student population. I feel there is more legal stuff that we aren't necessarily aware of.

Fraud would be a potential starting point if we are going to consider things like that. Profiting off another's resources without consent is never a good idea.

[captain_to_fire]

5 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Fraud would be a potential starting point if we are going to consider things like that. Profiting off another's resources without consent is never a good idea.

I wonder if adding deep packet inspection to every network in a big university with 30,000 students or more would be very expensive. I remember back in college my university blocked proxies to access YouTube and social media in the school wifi. Maybe universities can do the same to deter in-campus cryptomining plus enabling default deny in campus computers especially in the library.

[Froody129]

The real question here is how the hell do you study with an ant miner next to you... they’re not made to be quiet 

[ScratchCat]

11 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

This reminds me. Kids nowadays don't know how noisy PCs during the Pentium II to IV era are during boot up. 

-snip-

Pentium I PCs didn't even adjust the fan speed most of the time.

Whoever decided that a power supply for a Pentium MMX with 17W TDP needed a fan louder than an R9 290X running Furmark should have been fired.

 

9 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Fraud would be a potential starting point if we are going to consider things like that. Profiting off another's resources without consent is never a good idea.

Under that concept using a computer to create a program you could profit off or playing paid competitive matches without consulting the University would count as fraud.

The issue is where to determine that it would be illegal to do so: If one wrote a Ethereum miner would testing it be fraud or acceptable use?

[Froody129]

22 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

This reminds me. Kids nowadays don't know how noisy PCs during the Pentium II to IV era are during boot up. 

The sound of all your fans spinning up, your hard drive(s) going crazy and the beep of a dozen different codes is a thing of beauty. 

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, ScratchCat said:

The issue is where to determine that it would be illegal to do so: If one wrote a Ethereum miner would testing it be fraud or acceptable use?

It is the work/school's building, hence their rules and they reserve the right to allow or ban stuff. My university banned wearing smartwatches during exams to deter cheating so they have the right to ban mining inside the campus regardless if you bought it or not.

[leadeater]

12 minutes ago, ScratchCat said:

Under that concept using a computer to create a program you could profit off or playing paid competitive matches without consulting the University would count as fraud.

The issue is where to determine that it would be illegal to do so: If one wrote a Ethereum miner would testing it be fraud or acceptable use?

Interestingly enough yes to both if you made a profit without consent. One of the fine print things you sign when enrolling is anything you do the intellectual property rights belongs to the educational institution not you, same is true for an employee of a business.

 

Very rarely is this enforced or even looked at though, discretion is a wonderful thing that is normally exercised in good faith by educational institutions. Two way don't be a dick basically.

 

[captain_to_fire]

Just now, Froody129 said:

The sound of all your fans spinning up, your hard drive(s) going crazy and the beep of a dozen different codes is a thing of beauty. 

I remember that Intel made motherboards like this one as well as the Pentium 4/Pentium D sucked ass as well as ATI Radeon 7000. 

[vorticalbox]

1 hour ago, hey_yo_ said:

It's no surprise that cryptocurrecies especially Bitcoin created a monster. At the moment cryptocurrencies are associated with the following such as:

• Money Laundering
• Tax Evasion
• Cybercrime

isn't fiat currency also associated with them too?

[captain_to_fire]

9 minutes ago, vorticalbox said:

isn't fiat currency also associated with them too?

True but fiat currency that is made by fractional reserve banking are controlled by banks and their supply can be manipulated by increasing or decreasing interest rates in loans and transactions made with fiat currency are easier to trace. Cryptocurrency is decentralized and it’s much harder to trace that’s why ransomware authors demand payment in Bitcoin. 

[leadeater]

6 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

True but fiat currency that is made by fractional reserve banking are controlled by banks and their supply can be manipulated by increasing or decreasing interest rates in loans and transactions made with fiat currency are easier to trace. Cryptocurrency is decentralized and it’s much harder to trace that’s why ransomware authors demand payment in Bitcoin. 

Which is amusing because one of the big talking points about cryptocurrency was it's traceability and transparency.

[RagnarokDel]

1 hour ago, huilun02 said:

Such enterprising kids they grow up so fast

Does cryptomining take a lot of bandwidth though?

I'm sure this usage just ends up paid for as part of school fees

maybe a few MB per hour. Nothing even remotely close to what browsing an instagram profile might do lol.

8 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

True but fiat currency that is made by fractional reserve banking are controlled by banks and their supply can be manipulated by increasing or decreasing interest rates in loans and transactions made with fiat currency are easier to trace. Cryptocurrency is decentralized and it’s much harder to trace that’s why ransomware authors demand payment in Bitcoin. 

It's easy AF to trace bitcoin, that's not what's hard. As soon as you find someone's address, you can trace every transaction they ever made. The thing is you need to know the address so I guess lazy-ass cops cant just put a name in a database and get the job done automatically for them.

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

Which is amusing because one of the big talking points about cryptocurrency was it's traceability and transparency.

I’m not really well acquainted with cryptocurrency jargon so correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t the blockchain the one that’s actually decentralized and transactions are encrypted and payments made using crypto are in a form of address like this one: 1BvBMSEYstWetqTFn5Au4m4GFg7xJaNVN2

 

So I’m not sure 

[leadeater]

4 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

I’m not really well acquainted with cryptocurrency jargon so correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t the blockchain the one that’s actually decentralized and transactions are encrypted and payments made using crypto are in a form of address like this one: 1BvBMSEYstWetqTFn5Au4m4GFg7xJaNVN2

 

So I’m not sure 

Correct but once you know the address you can query the network and get the entire life history of it, anyone can. Knowing the address is a different matter.

[Cheezdoodlez]

How is using a VPN gonna hide the fact you use a ton of electricity? 

[Danielx64]

I know that this topic is about bitcoin mining and such, what if someone was playing games on their computer and that make the computer use more power than someone working on word docs etc?

[leadeater]

5 minutes ago, Danielx64 said:

I know that this topic is about bitcoin mining and such, what if someone was playing games on their computer and that make the computer use more power than someone working on word docs etc?

If you can manage to do that for 744 hours straight then you're legend 

[captain_to_fire]

11 minutes ago, RagnarokDel said:

It's easy AF to trace bitcoin, that's not what's hard. As soon as you find someone's address, you can trace every transaction they ever made. The thing is you need to know the address so I guess lazy-ass cops cant just put a name in a database and get the job done automatically for them.

While there have been many hackers and malware authors arrested, I haven’t heard nor read about ransomware authors getting apprehended if BTC addresses are traceable. Does it means cops especially their cybercrime division are just slacking off? Also, cybercriminals can conceal their IP addresses with a VPN. 

[captain_to_fire]

10 minutes ago, leadeater said:

Correct but once you know the address you can query the network and get the entire life history of it, anyone can. Knowing the address is a different matter.

Yeah but if locating them is done by IP addresses, cybercrooks can just use a VPN. 

[Danielx64]

2 minutes ago, leadeater said:

If you can manage to do that for 744 hours straight then you're legend 

Not really about that - if you play games on the weekend but do your school work during the week, couldn't they think that someone is up to something? Also, can they tell how much power each person is using?

[leadeater]

4 minutes ago, hey_yo_ said:

Yeah but if locating them is done by IP addresses, cybercrooks can just use a VPN. 

I mean the wallet address. The issue comes when they convert it from BTC either to another crypto or through an exchange that offers privacy. You will know everything about BTC within the network for any address you know, once it leaves the network you lose the ability to track it.

[captain_to_fire]

6 minutes ago, Cheezdoodlez said:

How is using a VPN gonna hide the fact you use a ton of electricity? 

You can’t. The same way ISPs can still spot data hogs even with a VPN because they can spot bandwidth usage. Also, most dorm rooms have dedicated electric meters and once admins spot a surge in consumption, they can open a dorm room and seize mining rigs.!

[captain_to_fire]

1 minute ago, leadeater said:

I mean the wallet address. The issue comes when they convert it from BTC either to another crypto or through an exchange that offers privacy. You will know everything about BTC within the network for any address you know, once it leaves the network you lose the ability to track it.

Now I know. I wonder why is it around 2010 Bitcoin is once touted by tech websites as anonymous