A number of government sites in the United States and Britain have recently been infected by malware. This malware makes the web browser secretly mine Monero virtual currency.
A number of popular pages were infected with malware and used to mine bitcoin and other virtual currencies.
The page is still infected with malware for several hours before it is finally restored.
Malware spreads through a popular website plugin called Browsealoud. This infected plugin is installed on 4,200 websites including on the UK healthcare page and US government courts.
These infected pages could be accessed for several hours and actively mine Monero under the control of malware spreaders.
For a few hours, chances are the hackers behind this case can get a considerable amount of profits.
Texthelp, the English company that created the plugin confirmed, it has removed the Browsealoud code from the internet while investigating the issue. Thus, the mining process has been closed.
The company also said no customer data was accessed or lost because of this.
With so many malware of this kind, some browsers develop script blockers to ensure their users stay safe from malware that mines virtual currency.
Previously, Kaspersky Lab has warned about the vulnerability that should be wary of virtual currency such as bitcoin and others.
Kaspersky Lab experts observe, there are so many malware attacks against this virtual currency.
For example, malware that mined bitcoin with botnet or trojan that can hack bitcoin wallet and steal bitcoin from this storage.
Not only that, there are also botnet malware that has the ability to infiltrate the victim's computer and use the victim's computer processor to be a productive bitcoin miner.
Attacks also continue to occur in the virtual currency exchange. For example the attack against the largest virtual currency exchange in the United States, BitFloor.
Because of this attack, BitFloor stopped operating in 2012, precisely after the attacker managed to infiltrate the server and stole the virtual currency worth US $ 250,000 (equivalent to Rp 3.5 billion).
Still related to digital currency, Facebook for example, some then also block bitcoin ads.
Bitcoin is not the only digital currency affected by blocking Facebook ads. Ripple took the example, the third largest digital currency is also decreased to double-digit. So even with Bitcoin Cash.
The reason for Facebook blocking ads about digital currencies is none other because they want to eradicate misleading practices such as Initial Coin Offering (ICO, Initial Coin Offer) and binary options.
They created a new policy, which prohibits advertising to promote financial products and services, often associated with misleading promotional practices such as binary options, ICO and cryptocurrency.
Facebook will also implement the new policy to all company-owned platforms. In addition to Facebook, Audience Network and Instagram will apply the new policy.
This new policy is enforced to keep users comfortable while using all of Facebook's services.
They want people to constantly discover and learn about new products and services through Facebook advertising without fear of being cheated. It is said that many companies that advertise binary options, ICO and cryptocurrency, do not operate in good faith.
Some time ago, Trend Micro also mentioned this kind of mode has been targeting Facebook users Messenger. Malware called Digimine comes in the form of links and video documents.
Just like any other mode, this malware is targeting Facebook Messenger users to mine monero digital currency. However, this malware only attacks Facebook Messenger which is used via desktop in Google Chrome browser.
Digimine is claimed as malicious malware. The reason, when successfully menginfeksi victim device, it will slow down the computer performance and use the victim's Facebook account to look for the next victim.
"If malware gets in, the victim's Facebook account is automatically used, Digimine 'manipulates' Facebook Messenger - as if the user is chatting to his friends - and sends a malicious link to the next victim.
So BEWARE of your friends.
