Kaspersky warns: Download pirated software makes users victims of "mining

Usually, the best solution is when a user needs to modify a file or image with too little time or a chance to find a reliable source of software to do it by downloading the first free or pirated app he finds, a widely deployed software. If the user does not notice anything suspicious about the performance of the software after it has been successfully downloaded and installed, it may find a significant slowdown in its computer compared to usual. In fact, it may receive an electricity bill at the end of the month that is higher than usual and is likely to have mining software on its computer Or what is known in the world of Block Qin by the term: Mining.

Malicious mining software was increasingly used in 2017, coinciding with the sharp rise in digital currency prices, in order to get easy money illegally. This was predicted in 2016 by Kaspersky Lab researchers, who noted a return to mining software amid the rise in popularity of the digital currency Zcash. Now, only a year later, mining programs are everywhere, according to Kaspersky Lab data, the number of affected users will exceed 2 million by the end of this year.

Criminals employ various tools and methods, such as social engineering-based campaigns with pirated software or software, to target as many computers as possible. Kaspersky Lab experts have recently identified a number of sites designed in a unified format that offer users free pirated software, including popular applications and software. The creation of special purpose "access pages" is not difficult, given the proliferation of pirated software, and even criminals use names much like real site names to confuse users as much as possible.

But the wisdom is to be cautious when displaying things without charge; the real purpose of these sites is to deploy certain mining software, which users put themselves at greater risk than they might think in their search for free applications.

The user receives mining software that automatically installs on the victim's computer with each downloaded file, to start working hidden on the device, using his mining power and searching for coins that are once disclosed to send directly to the criminals.

The download file also contains text files containing activation information consisting of the title of the criminal purse, and the name of the mining complex "mine", a private server that collects several subscribers and distribute among their computers mining. In return, the participants receive their share of encrypted digital currencies. Mining mines offer greater efficiency and faster mining speeds than work in a single way, since mining and other digital currencies are a resource-intensive process that consumes considerable energy and time.

Kaspersky Lab researchers noted that criminals used the NiceHash software in all cases, a project that recently suffered a major security breach that caused the theft of millions of dollars in digital currency and some of whose victims were connected to a mining mine of the same name.

Kaspersky Lab's experts found another interesting feature that allowed criminals to change predefined points, such as an electronic wallet number, mining software or mine, giving them the opportunity to distribute mining operations and change the final destinations of digital currencies at any time, or refer the victim's computer to another mine.

Alexander Kulisnikov, a Kaspersky Lab malware analyst, said that mining software reduces the performance of the victim's device to affect the use of the device and causes high costs of electricity consumption, regardless of not being considered malicious software. "The victim, without knowing it, Bringing money into someone else's digital wallet as a result of using pirated software that seems harmless. We therefore advise users to be careful and use only legal software to avoid this possibility. "
Kaspersky Lab proposes the following steps to protect users from these incidents and to prevent their computers from being converted into mining machines:

Download only legal software from reliable sources
Do not click on unknown sites and suspicious ads
Installing a reliable security solution such as Kaspersky Internet Security or Kaspersky Free protects against all potential threats, which include malicious software mining
More detailed information on the newly discovered mining software project can be found on the Securelist website.

Threat forecasts can also be found in the Kaspersky Security Bulletin in 2018 or see the catalog to learn more about digital developments in the context of e-security