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Bitcoin mining malware spreading on Skype, researcher says |
April 05, 2013
Security researchers from Kaspersky Lab have identified a spam message campaign on Skype that spreads a piece of malware with Bitcoin mining capabilities.
Bitcoin (BTC) is a decentralized digital currency that has seen a surge in popularity since the beginning of the year and is currently trading at over US$130 per unit making it an attractive investment for legitimate currency traders, but also cybercriminals.
BTCs are generated according to a special algorithm on computers using their CPU and GPU resources. This operation is called Bitcoin mining and is usually performed by users who operate multi-GPU computer rigs. However, mining efforts can also be pooled for better results.
Cybercriminals have figured out that distributed Bitcoin mining is a perfect task for botnets and have started developing malware that can abuse the CPUs and GPUs of infected computers to generate Bitcoins.
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Link: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2033287/bitcoin-mining-malware-spreading-on-skype-researcher-says.html#tk.rss_all
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