The recent victim of malware threats now is Skype. Video chatting with your distant relative might harm your tablet or P.C. for the next couple of days. This latest malware that has been circulating across Skype is found to have influenced the users and convinced them to click on the link of threat.
Unlike any other threat of this category it drops a Bitcoin. This is the malware which can make the creator of this malware go from rags to riches.
Bitcoin is a decentralized digital currency. Amongst its contemporaries it is referred to as the most popular alternative to common forms of money. All the users who click on the link use the system’s processing power to try and generate a 64-digit numbers to match a certain pattern that the Bitcoin network has posted up as a virtual bounty.
Further it is also used to pay for online and offline transactions.
Eve of Thursday, security giants Kaspersky discovered this threat. They named it the Trojan.Win32.Jorik.IR Cbot.xkt. As of now, the potential victims were from Italy, Russia, Costa Rica, Germany, Spain and Ukraine.
Several anti-malware programs as measured by VirusTotal failed in detecting this malware. Once the machine is infected, the Trojan spreads like wildfire and drops in multiple other pieces of malware. Using Hotfile it grabs the bits and also connects to a server located in Germany for further instructions. Kaspersky also revealed that in the initial stages the average clicking rate hit 2,000 clicks per hour.
The cybercriminals use these Bitcoins to generate a profit, while the victims’ computers slow down (sometimes to the point of becoming unstable and unusable).In this case, the threat trojan maxes out the computer’s CPU
To minimize the impact of this malware the users have been warned to not click on any randomly appearing links on Skype. This would not only prevent the spread of malware but also neglecting any success to cyber criminals.
Skype under threat, could be a huge problem soon, let us know what you think in the comments section below.
via PC Mag