Today as I was out to fix someone's computer, something somewhat unexpected happened..
He called me because his computer was facing major slowdown issues so I went to check it out.

After checking for any resource hogging software I noticed a process that was causing the CPU to work 100% at all times..
The process was "minerd.exe" and it was clearly a malware.. so I researched on it to see what exactly it does..

And I was surprised to see that it was a BitCoin mining malware..
My client obviously had no idea of what BitCoin is so I guess it just found its way in possibly packed with other software..

Just for the record I removed it using Vipre Antivirus..

So we have now entered a new age in computer infections.. this is actual software that produces electronic money..
This goes beyond normal adware.. I can't even imagine what its creator may be already making based on this infection he created..

So be careful when installing new stuff on your Windows PC..
And of course if you notice anything weird feel free to ask me.

I don't understand 'BitCoin mining'. What exactly it is, I mean 'mining'. What this malware does?

Mining is the process of using CPU power to discover block chains.
It's more or less a reward for processing Bitcoin transactions.

Well Rui jumped out of nowhere and said everything I would say in a whole page summed up in 2 lines...  :-[

Ok, we have also discussed this subject here before.


In my place they say that "an image is worth a thousand words" so.. since a video is worth 30.000 words/second, to break it down in a much easier way simply watch the embedded video in this page :

http://www.bitcoinmining.com/

SolidSnake wrote on 7^th Mar, 2014 at 11:59am:

Well Rui jumped out of nowhere and said everything I would say in a whole page summed up in 2 lines...  :-[ Ok, we have also discussed this subject here before. In my place they say that "an image is worth a thousand words" so.. since a video is worth 30.000 words/second, to break it down in a much easier way simply watch the embedded video in this page : http://www.bitcoinmining.com/

Rui would never make a career of radio, politics or law. Those guys have to take about two minutes of information and stretch it into an hour worth of talking

[smiley=lolx.gif]

I tend to do that on a lot of subjects. Yup, no politics for me  :P

We should also add that "we do not negotiate with terrorists nor malware.."  :P