China Crypto Mining Malware Siphons $2 Million Worth, Over 1 Million Computers Infected

Malware attacks are one of the easiest ways for hackers to steal money from unsuspecting consumers, especially those that invest in the crypto world. In a report on July 9^th, hackers used exactly this method to steal a total of $2 million from over 1 million computers. The hacking took place primarily in China, though it gradually withdrew the funds over the course of two years.

This malware was hidden within internet browser plug-ins that were created for different benefits to users. Once the user clicked on the advertisement and downloaded the plug-ins, all they had to do was complete the installation before the computer was infected. Over the two years, each download brought in another 26 million digibyte, decred and siacoin tokens.

The reason that the hackers chose less significant tokens is largely due to the minimal mining power they required, since smaller electricity processes were less likely to tip off the victims. In the police report, it shows that the scheme involved over 100 agents working to make the software effective, often working at internet cafes to easily infiltrate computers sharing a network.

Unfortunately, this is not even the first, second, or even 100^th time that consumers have been victims. A previous report showed other hackers in China that worked with various firms to hack over 100,000 computers. These computers were in internet cafes, mining the same siacoin tokens with local computer maintenance companies.