Home
News
- Microsoft Security Intelligence revealed that a Kobe Bryant wallpaper with a mining script hidden inside is getting circulated on the web.
- The hackers use photos of celebrities as people usually download these photos without any suspicion.
- The virus exe file was mining Monero by hijacking the resources of the infected computer.
A few days ago, Basketball star Kobe Bryant died in a tragic helicopter crash when it flew into a cliff during heavy fog. People were mourning, and some cybercriminals took this opportunity to infect computers with malware.
It is shameful that these criminals are trying to make money off the sentiments of people. Microsoft Security Intelligence revealed that a Kobe Bryant wallpaper with a mining script hidden inside is getting circulated on the web.
In a tweet, Microsoft Security Intelligence wrote, “While the world mourns the loss of an NBA legend, cybercriminals are, as expected, taking advantage of the tragedy. We found a malicious HTML file posing as a Kobe Bryant wallpaper that contains a coin mining script.”
It is scary enough to find out that a wallpaper that one thought to be harmless could be a source of malware. What makes this act even worse is that some people are using it to infect people’s computers by taking advantage of a dead person.
It is not the first time that someone has used celebrity photos to hide an evil program. This technique has applied for a while referred to as stenography, where a malicious file hidden inside an ordinary file.
It is quite similar to Trojan Horses, which carries a virus with a regular file. Once a victim accesses the proper data, the virus gets executed and infects the system.
The hackers use photos of celebrities as people usually download these photos without any suspicion, and at times, even antivirus software fails to detect the malware that comes along.
Recently, a mining bot MyKingz found in the image of American singer, Taylor Swift. The virus exe file was mining Monero by hijacking the resources of the infected computer. Another similar incident happened with the photo of Scarlett Johansson.
Cryptojacking, the act of using someone else’s computer to mine cryptocurrency, is very common, and people behind bots like MyKingz made over $2 million by this means.
With a background in journalism, Ritika Sharma has worked with many reputed media firms focusing on general news such as politics and crime. She joined The Coin Republic as a reporter for crypto, and found a great passion for cryptocurrency, Web3, NFTs and other digital assets. She spends a lot of time researching and delving deeper into these concepts around the clock, and is a strong advocate for women in STEM.
