Hackers
have infected thousands of Android phones and smart TVs. Only this time they're
using them to mine for cryptocurrency called Monero.
This
discovery was made by researchers at Chinese cybersecurity firm 360 Netlab as
reported in “Hackers
infect Android phones and TVs to mine cryptocurrency”, published February 6
2018 by Laura Hautala, CNET News.
Apparently,
the hackers are taking advantage of open 5555 ports on these devices. Hackers
used a worm to create this network of infected devices to mine for more Monero.
By interconnecting these devices, the hackers have the computing power of
thousands of devices that do not belong to them.
So
how does this hack work?
360 Netlab and the
hackers - Using spare processing power to mine Monero
Strangely
the hackers were able to figure out which phones had open port 5555, as they
were not opening themselves as pointed out by Chinese cybersecurity firm 360
Netlab , quote: “The 5555 ADB interfaces of those devices have already been
opened before [they're] infected. We have no idea about how and when this port
was opened yet”.
Most
likely, they achieved this via using phishing emails as described in my blog article
entitled “How
Islamic Cybergroup Team Emirates hacked the Ministry of Transport and Works”
Something
tells me that there may be even larger botnets out there mining cryptocurrency,
the new wave for hackers. This, after all, is more profitable than deploying
ransomeware, as the cryptocurrency is set to rise in value as their potential
becomes more apparent.
Still,
no harm done but more reason to be careful what you click on!!!
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