High Alert Issued Against Malware Attack on Crypto-Wallets

Security researchers have come across a new malware that is attacking bitcoin and litecoin wallets, InnfiRAT. It is a remote access trojan that steals sensitive data stored on a device including details of cryptocurrency wallet. Cybersecurity researchers at Zscaler’s ThreatLabZ say that bitcoin and litecoin wallets could be jeopardized, although other wallets are also at risk of being breached.

In a blog post, ThreatLabZ experts have said that “Among other things, InnfiRAT is written to look for cryptocurrency wallet information, such as bitcoin and litecoin.”

InnfiRAT looks for wallet.dat files; when found, it sends it to a server maintained by the cyber thugs. Researchers cautioned that RATs generally gets downloaded through an “infected email attachment or app.” Therefore, they have issued a warning that people should only access genuine and verified sources. Only recently, cyber researchers were astonished to find that four out of the first five results shown when Google for “bitcoin QR generator,” were fake websites.

With the increase in the popularity of digital assets, cybercrimes against bitcoin and cryptocurrency holders have increased. The industry will have to figure very soon out a way to protect the users and at the same time, deal with the miscreants.

Recently it was found that a new version of the Glupteba malware has breached bitcoin’s blockchain. This malware uses the internet network to repel attacks by the device’s antivirus and updates itself.

The latest news is that a 19-year old from Ipswich, England was found to be part of a scandalresponsible for the stealing of to-be-released songs of a well-known record label and selling them off in cryptocurrencies. He has been nabbed by the London Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit and the office of Manhattan District Attorney’s with a tip from The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.