Watch_Dogs torrent secretly installing a Bitcoin miner on thousands of computers
neogaf.com
neogaf.com
I've commented on this in the past, but I saw a bitcoin miner in a supposed SimCity torrent over a year ago, so this is nothing new.
However, I wonder why the perpetrators used "winlogin.exe" as the malware executable file name instead of "winlogon.exe". If I remember correctly, Windows prevents you from killing any file named "winlogon.exe" from the Task Manager. Maybe to help prevent detection by heuristic anti-malware engines?
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Given that a decent proportion (most?) of people downloading and running a modern PC game like Watch_Dogs will have high-end discrete graphics cards, it seems odd that the malware doesn't take advantage of GPU mining.
I didn't realize there enough ASIC–chip powered devices out there running to make that a more effective method (even considering the fact that ASIC–powered devices are roughly 50x more effective).
Assuming PC gamers have better-than-average graphics cards, the pennies here could be $500+/mo depending on how many people got fooled by this.
1. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=113371411&postcou...
FLACs and movies, fine. Go nuts. But never, EVER, EVER try your luck with cracked software.
It's not worth it.