Security experts have warned that a virus that turns victims' computers into a cryptocurrency miner without their knowledge is spreading across Facebook Messenger.
"Digmine" as the virus is called, affects desktop versions of the app when running on a Google Chrome browser as mobile devices are not powerful enough to do much work , according to our sources.
If the user’s Facebook account is set to log in automatically, Digmine will manipulate Facebook Messenger in order to send a link to the file to the account’s friends," they wrote in a blogpost. This link usually manifest itself in the form of a video.
Mining a Bitcoin eats up a lot of power and so it has become lucrative for hackers to infect computers in masses to do the job, earning them cryptocurrency including Bitcoin in return.
With a finite supply of 21 million Bitcoins, a handful of opportunistic individuals and organisations are making use of powerful computers to hoard as much of the supply as possible.
"The increasing popularity of cryptocurrency mining is drawing attackers back to the mining botnet business," a Kariblink spokesman said.
"And like many cybercriminal schemes, numbers are crucial—bigger victim pools equate to potentially bigger profits. The fact that they’re piggybacking on popular platforms such as social media to spread their malware is unsurprising."
The virus appears to have originated in South Korea and has spread across Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, and Venezuela. Trend Micro said it expected it to spread further, "given the way it propagates".
Facebook said: "We maintain a number of automated systems to help stop harmful links and files from appearing on Facebook and in Messenger.
How to protect yourself
You can protect yourself by installing proper antivirus software that will detect the java miner. These can be easily found with a google search. My personal recommendation would be AVAST which is free for the most part.