College Cryptocurrency mining is soaring! College campuses are the second largest cryptocurrency miners across the board, according to tech conglomerate Cisco. Cisco published the findings in PCMag on March 5th.
Cisco investigated cryptocurrency mining activity through its security product Umbrella. Umbrella monitors clients’ network connections to screen and point out malicious activity, including crypto mining.
University Campuses are ranked the second biggest miners of cryptocurrency, positioning itself at 22%, second only to the energy and utilities sector, which holds around 34%.
Austin McBride, a Cisco threat researcher, explained the trend to PCMag, saying “you leave [the mining rig] running in your dorm room for four years, you walk out of college with a big chunk of change.”
College students are able to avoid electricity costs associated with cryptocurrency mining, and by using the school’s electricity, their bottom line isn’t affected.
“Mining difficulty for a lot of coins is very high right now – which means it costs more for electricity and internet than the profit you can produce from mining those coins. If you don’t have to pay for those costs, then you are in a really good spot for making money on the university’s dime.”
According to Cisco, college campuses and utilities are followed by the media and healthcare industries, both holding 6% and 7% respectively. Local government, manufacturing, and financial services trail with 4%, 3%, and 2% respectively.
This follows the trend that was observed last year in April when Vectra, a cyber attack monitoring firm, discovered that both intentional cryptocurrency mining and cryptojacking was slowly becoming more prevalent – college campuses lead the charge.
Stanford University posted a warning against crypto mining on campus in January of 2018, stating that school resources “must not be used for personal financial gain.”
What do you think? I know personally, I had an opportunity to mine Bitcoin in college – one of my biggest regrets is not taking it up! Are you in college? Are you currently mining Bitcoin or other cryptocurrency? Let us know on our Facebook page!
