Mining cryptocurrency is the new malware of Android applications

Mining cryptocurrency is the new malware of Android applications

Blockchain News
June 19, 2020 by Editor's Desk
4071
A new type of malware has been discovered in some heavily downloaded Android applications. Instead of infecting the bitcoin user, apps mine cryptocurrency. What if the application you downloaded emptied your Android battery because it is dedicated to mining cryptocurrency in the background? Watch out, it’s already happening. The malware in Android applications is something
Differences Between Bitcoin Mining Farms and Traditional Data Centers

A new type of malware has been discovered in some heavily downloaded Android applications. Instead of infecting the bitcoin user, apps mine cryptocurrency.

What if the application you downloaded emptied your Android battery because it is dedicated to mining cryptocurrency in the background? Watch out, it’s already happening.

The malware in Android applications is something that cannot shake, especially when download and install APKs. The problem is that the Play Store is also vulnerable, even though Google is trying to stop infections thanks to Google Play Protect. With so much hunting of the mouse and the cat it is normal that the rodents end up mutating, as it happens with the new detected malware.

The minefield of criptomonedas has become so popular that the most powerful graphics cards are used to it coming to disappear from the market to the despair of most gamers. Since any computer system can perform mathematical calculations to find new Hashes, an Android smart phone is also capable of mining.

How to get mobiles to mine for you? Simply insert a mining tool into your application and ask whoever downloads it to activate this function to give them rewards in return. The problem comes when the developer does not warn of it causing fraudulent use of the application.

When you think you download a game and actually install a mining tool

Asking the user to activate a mining function of your app would have no problems if you make it clear before proceeding with the download. The problem comes when you hide the tools and dedicate yourself to reproduce it in all your applications creating a kind of malware dedicated to mining Bitcoins. Bitcoin code website is one of best software which is like by most of trader for getting informational about bitcoin trading.

The information comes from Ixia, a company dedicated to network security and services. From an analysis of two suspicious applications, the engineers found unusual behaviors. Heating of smartphones, abuse of resources … Mobile phones were mining without their owners knowing it.

A cryptocurrency mining script is causing thousands of users to see how their devices lost efficiency and battery for something they did not know. The developer knowingly and in bad faith integrated the tool. As they stand out in Ixia after a search of the profile by different blogs, the developer affirms that his work is Like a botnet, but completely legal «.

There are a number of applications identified in the Google Play Store, all from the same developer that owns companies like AK Games. Ixia detected that, despite having used cryptocurrency mining in its applications and games, the developer eliminated the tool to use it in a unique application of rewards for its games, probably due to the alert created by the malware. That application, called Reward Digger, does specify its intentions on the Google Play tab:

The application uses a cryptocurrency code that is received by the developer of the app; giving in return to the player’s advantages in the rest of games.

Despite the fact that this new format is more transparent, users of the application do not perceive anything from the cryptocurrency that they mine. They do gain in-app benefits.

A case that uncovers a way of scam that is booming

We have no problem in cryptocurrency mining as monetization as long as the user is alerted and freely given the choice of whether or not to put their device to work. But of course, that the mining tool comes integrated in the apps of tabardillo cannot be tolerated. And it will be one of the paths that malware will take from now on.

Our recommendation is the usual one: download only apps and games from recognized and reputable developers. Ixia warns that the games with the hidden miner infected millions of users who downloaded them. And, on top of that, they continued to have abusive advertising, which is the last straw. So choose the correct information about trading, which help you to get exact current value of bitcoin and hence make easy to do investment in this digital currency.

Add a comment