New Mac OS Trojan Produces BitCoins

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."

Comments

"...the processing power of video cards..."

[willoughby]

As an owner of a Mac Mini let me just say, "Thank God, I'm safe!".

Just works!

[Anonymous Coward]

I use MACs because they just work!

--A virus writer.

Re:Just works!

[meerling]

There are very very few new viruses anymore, it's been like that for years. The problem is the media calls bloody everything a virus, even program glitches on occasion.
But it is malware, and it's a lot more than just a trojan. It's also backdoor, and phisher. It's a nasty little package, especially for anyone that thinks macs are immune.
Didn't see any mention of it having and poison pill functions if someone tries to remove it.

A perfect storm of trolling

[alostpacket]

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

Re:A perfect storm of trolling

[AlienIntelligence]

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

Follow the Trail

[igreaterthanu]

As BitCoin transactions aren't anonymous, in fact they are completely public, it would be trivial to follow where the BitCoins end up - hopefully to catch the malware author.

Re:Follow the Trail

[Rinisari]

It's not perfect anonymity, but there are ways to stay safer by using multiple BTC addresses and such.

https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Anonymity

Re:Follow the Trail

[BitZtream]

If I was doing this, I would have done it just to be a dick, not to profit. That means I'd make it run on a Mac just to go along with the 'macs don't get viruses' meme, and I'd do bit coin mining for no reason other than to devalue it into oblivion because I'm sick Of seeing silly arguments over fiat currancies versus gold backed ones.

Not everything is about monetary gain. Sometimes people are just dicks.

Not popular, not currency

[GrandCow]

Bitcoin is in a lot of trouble at the moment.

It is not popular, since the speculators have mostly disappeared at this point. They got in on the market upswing, moving the price to almost $30 per bitcoin for a brief moment. As soon as the speculators reached their plateau, the sell-off began. Bitcoins are selling for 5-10% of what they were selling at their peak. You can expect to get between $1.50 and $3.00 per bitcoin at this point. The true believers still claim that it's coming back, but a single look at any price graph shows that in the end, anything you put into bitcoin is a lost cause. The price continues to drop as more people get out and sell what they have, plus the people "mining" bitcoins selling at whatever the current lowest price is. ALL of the major exchanges have been "hacked" at some point. I say this in quotes because there has never been any proof that the owners of each exchange didn't just decide to take the money and run, which they could have done at any time with ZERO repercussions. One of the larger exchanges was blatant enough to take everything but offer 49% back of what you lost if you'd just use them again (but accept the service fees), as opposed to the others that just delete the website and sell the coins on other markets.

The reason that this is all possible is: bitcoin isn't a currency! It is the same as trading rocks with numbers painted on them to say how much they are worth; this means there is no regulation. It's not anywhere near any other currency in the world because it doesn't have a government backing up it's value. As much as the different sites claim that it is going to change the world, bitcoin itself is being challenged in court and both results are bad for it. If it is declared a currency, the regulations alone will destroy it. If it is declared not a currency (which it is not), it will be destroyed by all sorts of fraud charges.

Stay away from bitcoin at all costs.

Re:Not popular, not currency

[DrXym]

Of course it is in trouble. It's always been in trouble. It's naively implemented, the client software was insecure, many of the exchanges were insecure, it faced (and still does) huge regulatory questions, it was a magnet for scammers, hackers & drug dealers, it was hyped through group think into a huge bubble which has since collapsed, people hoarded coins rather than spending them and are now panic selling, and the system itself has many of the characteristics of a ponzi / pyramid scheme. I'm sure some people profited from it, and many more didn't. It's a broken system and this much has been obvious for a long time.