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New Mac OS Trojan Produces BitCoins

Posted by Unknown on from the why-is-my-computer-on-fire dept.

angry tapir writes about an interesting use for malware. From the Techworld article: "A newly identified Mac OS X Trojan bundles a component that leverages the processing power of video cards to generate Bitcoins, a popular type of virtual currency. The new Trojan was dubbed DevilRobber by antivirus vendors and is being distributed together with several software applications via BitTorrent sites."

4 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. Re:A perfect storm of trolling by AlienIntelligence · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A Mac Trojan and a Bitcoin story in one! Quick someone tie this into global warming!

    What's there to tie into global warming...? Of course the production
    of bitcoins uses processor or GPU, which uses electricity, which
    pollutes the atmosphere cause it's the electricity from the coal plants
    ONLY and not from the nuke plants... but the nuke plants are just
    as bad cause they are all susceptible to tsunamis, even the inland
    ones.

    So, yeah, I added global warming AND nuke, there!

    -AI

    --
    For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion
  2. Re:Joke's on them. by phungus · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The mining difficulty has been dropping in relation to the number of miners that have been leaving the network. This is exactly how the system was designed, and it's a good thing, because now I'm making more coins than I was before. :-)

    Lots of folks have mining hardware that was paid off in the $30 days and now they still run for free at work or wherever. Not everyone is paying for electricity.

  3. Re:New Trojan produces Quantitative Easing by fyngyrz · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Because bitcoins want to be free! And, and, they're like... BEER! And... noone accepts them for anything, so you can save a LOT of 'em without being tempted to spend 'em! An... an... they keep you from having to do Real Work! "Honey, don't bother me, I'm minting bitcoins!"

    --
    I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
  4. Re:Just works! by Lumpy · · Score: 3, Interesting

    except on the windows platform. There are still plenty that can infect without the user running it as administrator because of crapware called MS office and Adobe Reader that do not run sandboxed but run so that when they overflow they give the code root level access.

    Again, it's the craptastic security model of Windows.

    --
    Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.