Smominru Monero mining botnet making millions for operators
released on 2018-02-02 @ 11:25:37 AM
Even with recent volatility in the price of most cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, interest among mainstream users and the media remains high. At the same time, Bitcoin alternatives like Monero and Ethereum continue their overall upward trend in value (Figure 1), putting them squarely in the crosshairs of threat actors looking for quick profits and anonymous transactions. Because obtaining these cryptocurrencies through legitimate mining mechanisms is quite resource-intensive, cybercriminals are stealing them, demanding ransomware payments in them, and harnessing other computers to mine them for free.