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The Internet security provider and research lab McAfee Labs has discovered new malware that secretly use consumer devices to extract Monero (XMR), a blog post confirmed on November 12th.
Nicknamed "WebCobra" and originally from Russia, the latest threat downloads one of the two data mining clients and uses the processor power of an infected device to generate coins for the perpetrators.
By visualizing the more "classic" behavior of so-called "cryptojacker" malware, WebCobra works almost without trace, says McAfee Labs, the only obvious difference for the end user is the reduction in hardware performance.
"Coin-mining malware is hard to detect." Once a machine is compromised, a malicious app runs invisibly in the background with a single sign: performance degradation, "the researchers write, adding:
"As malware increases energy consumption, the car slows down, leaving the owner with a headache and an unwelcome bill."
As reported earlier by Cointelegraph, instances of this type of malware have increased by almost 500% in 2018, leading commentators to warn of an epidemic. Monero, as a cryptocurrency focused on privacy and anonymity, has been reported as the preferred target for miners.
Last month, Google announced that it would remove all extensions containing code obscured by its Chrome Web Store in efforts to combat hidden encryption extraction among other policy violations.
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