Chinese Cybersecurity Company Qihoo 360 Develops Crypto Mining Monitor for Government Agencies

China's crackdown on cryptocurrency mining has been swift and heavy-handed over the past few months and the government has decided to leave no stone unturned as it now seeks assistance from cybersecurity giant Qihoo 360 to help track down any instance of crypto mining in the country. The Chinese cybersecurity company took to WeChat to announce a breakthrough system earlier this week through which the company claims to be able to monitor cryptocurrency mining operations and stated that it will be assisting the Chinese government in its mission to weed out crypto mining activities.

First reported by Coindesk, Qihoo 360's novel monitoring system is claimed to be capable of revealing a miners' IP address, geographical location, network type, connection frequency, and even suggest ways to weed them out. Sharing some key insights from the data extracted by its monitoring system, Qihoo 360 claims to have found as many as 1,09,000 mining IP addresses active per day on an average in the month of November — mostly in the province of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shandong. Qihoo 360 said crypto miners mainly use home broadband, enterprise Internet connections, and data centres.

The software suite makes use of Qihoo 360's proprietary network traffic monitoring capabilities, big data analysis, and active defence mechanisms, the company said.

Cryptocurrency mining gobbles up vast amounts of power, both through the electricity consumed by the specialised computer equipment needed to solve the mathematical puzzles that produce the currency and through the energy needed to cool the machines and prevent them from overheating.

As China works to implement its pledge to create a low-carbon economy and reach peak carbon emissions by 2030, it has stepped up efforts to clamp down on crypto mining and trading since May this year.

China's top economic planning agency recently provided details about how it plans to root out cryptocurrency mining, saying that the next phase of the crackdown will focus on industrial-scale mines and state-owned entities' involvement.

Authorities will also prioritise the elimination of Bitcoin mining, in particular, Meng Wei, a spokesperson for the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), told media sources.

In addition, the NDRC will also force crypto mining projects that currently pay residential electricity prices to pay higher rates as a punishment, Meng said, after being asked about what the NDRC's next steps will be in its crackdown on the industry.