SYDNEY, March 8 (Xinhua) -- Two IT employees from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology are reportedly being investigated for allegedly using government computers to secretly mine cryptocurrency.
According to local media on Thursday, Australian Federal Police executed a search warrant at the Bureau's national headquarters in Melbourne where they held interviews with the two persons of interest.
At this moment no charges have been laid, however at least one of the staff that was questioned is thought to have gone on leave.
While online currencies remain illegal in many countries, cryptocurrencies are not against the law in Australia, however using government equipment to mine the digital coins is.
"If the employees were mining cryptocurrency, they may have been using the bureau's computers to either avoid the significant electricity bills involved in mining," Chris Berg from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology's Blockchain Innovation Hub explained.
"Or they may have been taking advantage of the bureau's powerful computational power."
"The Bureau of Meteorology has some very fast computers."
