A new botnet, Smominru that is focused on mining Monero cryptocurrency entrapped more than over 500,000 Windows machines all over the world. By hitting the majority of government and corporate servers, it gives a resemblance to the WannaCry attack last year that hit more than 400,000 machines worldwide.
Monero Mining Software hits 500,000 Machines
With the increasing rate of cryptocurrency related hacking incidents, a botnet called Smominru has sprung up and affected over 500,000 Windows-based computer systems to date. A sinkholing operation has been conducted by the security researchers that discovered the fact that these machines are distributed worldwide. The highest numbers are present in India, Russia, and Taiwan.
It has been believed that the majority of these affected computers are government and corporate servers. Moreover, the Monero miner also called Ismo has been spreading via EternalBlue, a National Security Agency-linked exploit that basically targets a vulnerability in the Server Message Block of Windows on port 445. That gives it a resemblance to other global attacks namely NotPetya and WannaCry.
The Monero payment address for Smominru’s associated hash powers divulges that the botnet here was about double the size of Adylkuzz. Adylkuzz is the first crypto mining botnet that abused EternalBlue.
Monero- a popular choice for hackers
It has been believed by the experts that this application could be making 24 Monero at maximum, per day. As per the reports, Smominru’s operators have already mined 8,900 Monero approximately that is somewhere between $2.8 million and $3.6 million.
Trending Stories
Another mining server MineXMR was also contacted about the Monero address associated with Smominru. But the mining pool banned it. This led the botnet operators to work with new domains and use the same pool to mine but on a new address. It seems that this switch was the result of the operators losing control over the third bot.
As per a report:
“Because most of the nodes in this botnet appear to be Windows servers, the performance impact on potentially critical business infrastructure may be high, as can the cost of increased energy usage by servers running much closer to capacity. The operators of this botnet are persistent, use all available exploits to expand their botnet, and have found multiple ways to recover after sinkhole operations.”
According to the reports of a security firm Talos that has studied botnets in the past with millions of victims:
“Talos has observed botnets consisting of millions of infected systems, which using our previous logic means that these systems could be leveraged to generate more than $100 million per year theoretically.”
As more and more malwares are associated with it, it appears that Monero is the coin of choice for the hackers.
According to a report, there are millions of computers in Thailand and all over the globe that is currently being used to mine Monero through malware that too without the knowledge of the PC owners that are victimized.
What are your views on this situation? Do you think due to the pseudo-anonymous nature of cryptocurrencies, this will worsen over time? Let us know your thoughts in our comment section below!
- Breaking: Do Kwon Releases Another LUNA Revival Plan
- Just-In: Grayscale Adds Five New Tokens To Its Investment Products
- Another Stablecoin Follows LUNA $UST, Crashes Within Hours
- PlanB: Bitcoin (BTC) Is Creating A Bottom For The Next Bull Market
- Shiba Inu Holders Increase Amid Market Crash, But There’s A Catch
- LUNA Crash: South Korea Toughens Up Investigations Over Terra (LUNA) Crisis
- Avalanche (AVAX) Slumps 5% In Minutes On Fears Of Terra Dump
- Breaking: Luna Foundation Guard Reserves Decimated By Terra Crash
- Breaking: Luna Foundation Guard Member Says Terra Reserves En Route
- Just-In: El Salvador To Discuss Bitcoin Adoption With 44 Countries
- Ethereum Price Analysis: ETH Price Erases Recovery Gains Towards $2,000
- Decentraland Price Analysis: MANA Price Sinks 10%; Are You Still Holding?
- Bitcoin Price Analysis: BTC Price Under Bear’s Spell; Is $26,000 On Cards Again?
- ETH Price Analysis: Consolidation Range Soon To Launch ETH Above $2250
- Bitcoin Price Analysis: Triangle Breakout Sets BTC Rally To $32000 Mark
- LUNA Price Analysis: Opportunity to Buy Cheap or A Bull Trap?
- Decentraland Price Analysis: MANA Price Prepares For 60% Gains; Are You Buying?
- SOL Price Analysis: Is $60.0 Around The Corner On The 4-hour Chart?
- DOGE Price Analysis: Wedge Pattern Retest Phase Warns $0.08 Fallout
- Ripple Price Analysis: XRP Price Remains Pressured below $0.50; Is Selling A Good Choice?
