Is it the perfect cyber crime? Hackers now have computers mining cryptocurrency, over 1 million computers!
By JeroenT96 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia Commons
Anonymous cryptocurrencies like Zcash can enable hackers to get paid setting botnets on innocent computers. Because cryptocurrencies such as these have to be mined, and because mining can happen without the computer owner even knowing, it allows for the possibility of millions of computers supporting anonymous hackers. At the same time it is also supporting the security of the network so for the cryptocurrency it's a positive but then for legitimacy and public relations it's a nightmare.
In the article, we see more bad publicity for cryptocurrency and in particular how will ordinary computer users even know they aren't miners?
"Downloading mining software to a PC doesn't necessarily have severe consequences for a user's data," Gostev wrote me in an email. "However, it does have the effect of increasing the energy consumption level of their machine, which results in more expensive electricity bills."
A direct cost to the owners of these PCs is a higher electric bill. In essence they are paying for the cryptocurrency stashes of the hackers by electric bill fees. In addition they have to pay the cost of having a slower pc.
According to new statistics released on Tuesday by Kaspersky Lab, a prominent Russian information security firm, 2017 is on track to beat 2016—and every year since 2011—in terms of the sheer number of computers infected with malware that installs mining software. So far in 2017, the company says it has detected 1.65 million infected machines.
I must note that the data is from the very controversial Kaspersky Lab, that being said if it is true then it is likely only the beginning.
References
Pearson, J. (20, September 12). At Least 1.65 Million Computers Are Mining Cryptocurrency for Hackers So Far This Year. Retrieved from https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/vb74j3/at-least-165-million-computers-are-mining-cryptocurrency-for-hackers-so-far-this-year
Pearson, J. (2016, December 12). You Could Be Mining This Cryptocurrency Without Knowing It. Retrieved from https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/aekqvb/you-could-be-mining-this-cryptocurrency-without-knowing-it-zcash-botnet
Don't know if it's true or not but I have heard that some of the government agencies are hiring hackers to attack those who are engaged in the mining activity.
To bring down cryptocurrencies? Even some miner machine producer like bitmain, planted bugs on their own machine so they can turn off anytime they want to decrease the hashrate. Evil genius plan. Look antbleed.com. We dont need government to interfere. We are already killing ourselves lol.
I mean ... no . No they're not. It's just kewl vice stories for simple folks
Why not. Smart people are ruling the others. It was like that from the down of the world
Whoa is that even possible? Anyway to identify that?
I guess you could see it at Task Manager if there is a mining process running
Thanks for the tips @elbiasto. As long as there is no suspicious software running, should be fine.
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STOPWow. Thanks for the headsup! I have resteemed this article so others can know. Cheers.
Hacker are not normal peoples, they are genius & can do such things very easily.
These programs don't run when the computer is off, and are quite easy to detect. What you really need to watch out for is RATs so people don't just steal your entire wallet, instead of them useing it to mine .00000000000000000001 of a bitcoin
They won't always be easy to detect. In fact some might eventually be completely undetectable.
Well if you don't know what your doing I guess. Nothing is completely undetectable on a computer.
It's definitely possible to make it undetectable. The only way to detect it would be to monitor the electricity usage if they really know what they are doing and even then they might keep it below a threshold to make it harder to detect. If you believe nothing is completely undetectable then you are unaware of covert channels?
Wow serious information
Thanks for help
Good post
Magnificent minds they have
great information for mining cryptocurrency !!!!
Most Mining-Scripts are detected by AV-Software, but you often you only have to rename the script and hide it (like ethminer or claymore cpu-miner eg.)
It would be difficult not to notice your GPU running hot while not doing anything on your computer. Maybe some people don't care.
the backbone for all mining is the internet connection. if you were to check for any suspicious unauthorised outgoing traffic from your PC, it would raise an alarm and you should investigate further.
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