Blog Summary – Recent outrage of downloading the pirated version of the latest Spider-Man movie from the Marvel Universe can cost you. As per the latest news, many pirated torrents and unsafe links to the movie have landed crypto-mining malware on the devices of such users.
With the increasing number of online users, the constant increase in malware attacks is alarming. The hackers are getting creative and ahead of time by planting major attacks for unsuspecting users. This time they have targeted a large sum of users relying on torrent downloads. Pirated content has always been a major concern but also it can be found quite easily online. They have taken advantage of this trend and used it to spread the crypto mining malware on devices. After a series of research from the ReasonLabs, the crypto mining malware has been confirmed to be found on one of the pirated downloads for Spider-Man’s latest movie. Let’s find out more about it in the blog post.
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What’s The News?
Spider-Man: No Way Home is gaining popularity at the box office as well as the internet trends. It has garnered a lot of traffic towards it after the leaked version of the movie was spreading across the internet. But this is not what made headlines recently, this time it has attracted the hackers to hide the malware with its pirated copies.
Image Source: Official Marvel Website
ReasonLabs, a security firm has warned people from downloading the pirated copies of Spider-Man: No Way Home as it is infected with crypto-mining malware. As someone has put a Monero Miner malware in the torrent file for the latest addition in the Spider-Man movie series. Since the movie was released in the theatres recently, there is a lot of demand for pirated copies online. The torrents being the best place to find the pirated copies of the latest movies, TV shows and games is constantly under attack by hackers. This time they have successfully planted a crypto mining malware to extract cryptocurrencies from the users.
In its blog, ReasonLabs has also stated that the file which is infected most likely originated from a Russian website. It can be found under the name – spiderman_net_putidomoi.torrent.exe which translates to spiderman_no_wayhome.torrent.exe”.
ReasonLabs also gives detailed information on what’s on the malware code. First, it can not be found in the database of the Virus Total and it is not written in the .net language in an attempt to remain hidden. It has used the legitimate files’ names for the processes it creates and pretends to be from Google. Some examples found are the disguised codes under names similar to Google to hide from Windows Defender as shown in the image below.
Image source: ReasonLabs Official Website
The program codes are suspicious from the beginning as they start a process to inject their embedded resources into your computer. As it is injected into other processes on your computer, it tries to run a thread hijacking method. The Crypto-mining malware used by the hackers is found out to be available on Github as a free-to-use miner version named SilentXMRMiner. It is one of the easy-to-use projects which can be used to compile another miner for a user.
The malware disguised with the Spider-Man movie file can be used to exploit the users and the device. It can affect your system performance as it will generate high CPU usage in attempts to inject malicious codes into processes.
What is Crypto Mining malware?
Crypto Mining malware refers to the malware which attacks the target computer to mine the various cryptocurrencies. It is also known as cryptojacking and this is used to operate the processes on the targeted computers to find information. It usually runs complex algorithms to get information on previous cryptocurrency transactions. This way they can generate a token of currency. The malicious code is mostly embedded in the website links, emails, and other trending downloads such as Torrent downloads. This is highly dangerous and not easily detectable.
This is not the first time hackers are targeting PCs. A lot of gamers have been attacked previously with crypto hacking and hackers have made millions of dollars with it. Cryptomining has been said to be one of the most highly spreading malware after the spyware. It is also found out in the NTT’s 2021 Global Intelligence Report that crypto mining malware was responsible for 41% of all malware. It can be found on computers as well as smartphones and Iot devices.
Also Read: Beware Of This Fake Ad Blocker: It Locks Up Files & Hijacks PCs To Mine Cryptocurrency
What can we do to make safe downloads?
Take extra precautions when you are downloading content from any of the non-official websites. Whenever using Torrent try and be cautious of such practices as the malware can be hidden in any of the links or downloads. Mostly adhere to downloading pirated and free content from the fishy online resources. Pirated content can anyways land you in trouble as it is illegal in most parts of the world.
Moreover, whenever you download any file from online resources or emails make sure to check it thoroughly. It must be a legit and official website for the source material or the email provider is known to you. Also, it must not include any suspicious attachments or file extensions.
Upon suspicion, you can always find more information on the internet or enquire from the source.
A malware in any form can be damaging for your data, device, or both. Sometimes, it can infect your device so badly that it can crash the computer completely. Data theft is another of the big problems associated with malware.
In this case, however, the crypto mining malware tends to fetch the cryptocurrencies. But it can also be harmful to your computer and also can manifest malicious activities on it. Personal information such as your credentials can also be stolen, once your device is compromised.
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Wrapping Up –
So, it is much better to pay and watch the Spider-Man: No Way Home movie in the theaters or waits till it’s available on the OTT platforms. Rather than getting hit with dangerous malware and losing your data, device, and money. We would recommend you to use the safety precautions and steer clear of unsafe websites. Especially the ones providing free downloads for the latest movies, shows, or games online.
Meanwhile, make sure you have a strong antivirus on your computer to protect you from any such threats. We recommend giving Systweak Antivirus a try. Get it from the download button given below for Windows 11, 10, 8.1, 8, and 7 SP1+. It is capable of providing you with real-time protection from malware and regularly updates its database on malware. Read more details in this Systweak Antivirus review.
We hope this article will help you learn about crypto mining malware. We would like to know your views on this post to make it more useful. Your suggestions and comments are welcome in the comment section below. Share the information with your friends and others by sharing the article on social media.
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