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There is a Skype trojan going around that is turning PCs into Bitcoin miners. So far, victims are mostly located in countries like Italy, Russia, Poland, Costa Rica, Spain, Germany, and a few others. Bitcoin Mining is a another way for users to acquire Bitcoin’s currency by “making computer hardware do mathematical calculations for the Bitcoin network to confirm transactions and increase security.”

The trojan is going around via a Skype instant message. The translated message says, “This is my favorite picture of you”, and provides a shortened link. The trojan is spreading quickly, with an average 2000 clicks per hour. Kaspersky has identified the trojan as “Trojan.Win32.Jorik.IRCbot.xkt”, and the process it runs as bitcoin-miner.exe. The malware connects to a C2 server located in Germany with the IP address: 213.165.68.138:9000.

The malware immediately takes control of your computer and increases the victim’s CPU usage drastically. While the trojan’s primary use is for Bitcoin mining, it’s not its only capability. Bitcoin mining isn’t lucrative with just one PC, however, if there are many PCs infected and aimed towards a specific Bitcoin mining pool, it can be worthwhile.

This new trojan is speculated to have surfaced due to the meteoric rise in Bitcoin value. Late last month, it was reported that the value of a Bitcoin was $92, a number that has now reached about $140. The constant rise in value of Bitcoin is more than enough to drive many devious hackers to get creative. So in order to protect yourself from being infected, make sure to get an anti-virus software, and keep it up-to-date. Also be wary of suspicious Skype messages and shortened URLs. We’ll keep you updated if there are any resolutions to this issue.

[via Kaspersky]

Skype trojan turns your computer into a Bitcoin miner is written by Brian Sin & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The digital world is starting to become a scary place with reports of numerous popular services getting hacked. We’ve seen ZenDesk, Evernote and even Dropbox suffer from hacker attacks, but a report is coming in from South Korea that may show how fragile our Internet infrastructure may be.

Three South Korean television broadcasters and two banks have reported they may have been the victims of a widespread malware attack as they all say they’ve experienced serious network outages with bank ATMs and online banking being down for hours. One thing that ties the banks and television broadcasters together is the fact they all use LG UPlus, which is provides Internet services to these particular companies. (more…)

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Google Fiber Expanded To A New City For The First Time, Google+ Hangout To Get New Screen Capture Feature,

Android is no stranger to malware. We’ve seen several instances of fake apps making their way into the Google Play store that are infested with malicious code, and while it just takes common sense to weed out the fake apps, some users can be unlucky enough to miss a couple and end up installing malware on their Android devices. Apple’s senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, wants to remind you all to “be safe out there.”

Schiller tweeted earlier today a link to a “Mobile Threat Report” from research and security company F-Secure, most of which highlights various security and malware vulnerabilities in Android. Along with the link, Schiller captioned it with a “be safe out there,” quietly giving a slight jab to Google’s mobile platform.

The report mentions several interesting facets about Android, including the statistic that Android accounted for 79% of just over 300 mobile threats in 2012, while just 0.7% of these threats dealt with iOS. Overall, the report states that iOS is one of the most secure mobile platforms out there, with BlackBerry also topping the list.

Of course, Apple is usually quiet when it comes to discussing their competitors, and they usually keep their fighting words to themselves, but we suppose that Apple execs have an open court when it comes to chatting on Twitter, and Schiller definitely wasn’t holding anything back with his tweet, no matter how subtle he was trying to be.

Apple’s Phil Schiller tells Android users to “be safe out there” is written by Craig Lloyd & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Apple has revealed that it was attacked by the same group that went after Facebook in a recent attempt to break that network’s security. The company says a “small number” of its employees’ Macs were affected, but there is “no evidence that any data left Apple,” according to a report by Reuters. The company will be issuing software to prevent customers from being attacked in the same manner, Apple said.

Apple’s report follows the news from Facebook on Friday that it was targeted by hackers apparently operating out of China. Facebook also reported that none of its users’ data was compromised through the attack. Apple is said to be workign with law enforcement on trying to find the source of the hacking attempt, and will be releasing a software tool aimed at its customers to help them protect their own Macs against the malware used by the unidentified assailant.

The goal for both Apple and Facebook, in being the source of these reports about attacks on their own companies is to be proactive and get out ahead of the news, in order to reassure customers that they’re doing everything possible to ensure the security of any data they hold. The object lesson of Sony’s PlayStation network breach, and the ensuing criticism and lawsuits that resulted from it being perceived as “slow” to notify outsiders of the attack is probably one cause of heightened transparency on the part of companies facing cyber-security threats.

For Apple, admitting to a security breach is a rare occurrence. The company acknowledged some 400 iTunes accounts were hacked back in 2010 in response to customer complaints, but this kind of pre-emptive move indicates that we’re likely dealing with a different level of security threat altogether. On the plus side, account data seems not to have been leaked, and this means authorities will have the help of two technology giants and their considerable resources in tracking the perpetrators down.