back to article Illicit Bitcoin miners steal resources from infected Macs

Security researchers have identified malware that hijacks the resources of infected Macs to illegally mint the digital currency known as Bitcoin. The DevilRobber.A trojan has been circulating on The Pirate Bay and other BitTorrent trackers, where it's bundled with the Mac OS X image-editing application Graphic Converter, …

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  1. Anonymous Prime
    WTF?

    Graphic Converter? Really?

    Who the hell needs to torrent GC? That's shareware. And unless they changed something recently, you don't even really need the serial #-- you just have to wait a minute after you launch it if it's not registered. And you can find pirated serials if really want to.

    1. Japhy Ryder

      It makes more sense once you realise that malwares are better off not infecting users with clue.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Maybe

      ... they need one of the dozens of non-shareware graphics converter and don't want to pay for one?

      Well done on bragging about your ability to pick decent warez though. I feel assured that your penis is both mighty and girth-some.

      1. theblackhand
        Mushroom

        Congratulations!

        Nice to see there are still people willing to put the 'tard in freetard....

        I'm guessing the lack of size and withered nature of your member have lead to you being unable to comprehend the original poster.

        To help you understand:

        - the application that was infected was Graphic Converter

        - Graphic Converter is available for download as shareware

        - if the user had downloaded the software from one of the numerous trustworthy shareware sites, the problem could have been avoided.

        - if the user had decided that they needed a paid-for app via a warez site or BitTorrent to avoid parting with their hard earned money, the problem could have been avoided

        1. Wize

          Its not just warez that are on torrents

          Thats how many get legal free software, like Linux.

  2. Leedos
    Stop

    Quality of Pwns?

    The first poster proves that using Graphic Converter is great way to bait Mac users. I'm sure there are more than a few users that don't like to wait.

    I think the bad guys are getting picky about the quality of their botnets. I work on enough outdated Intel hardware to know the average Intel Mac has much faster hardware than the average PC. Using the GPU for minting Bitcoin is quite impressive. Malware is now running on GPU's! The programming behind this attack is the real news here.

    1. Ammaross Danan
      Holmes

      I agree, the malware is the news here. That's a pretty impressive kit, even it was a Windows virus. That is targets Macs makes it all the more delicious for the Windows camp, but if you're mining bitcoin, wouldn't you want to target a demographic that is guaranteed to have a decent GPU (as opposed to Intel GMA) and also guaranteed not to have an AV installed?

  3. drunk.smile
    Gimp

    ..but...but...

    ... Macs don't get infections!

    1. Chris007
      Terminator

      see the fanbois are already voting you down

      The post is required, and must contain letters.

  4. Japhy Ryder

    Après nous le déluge

    It seems malwares are catching on that Macs may be relatively few but they are in touch with disproportionate wealth. Softly, softly catchee monkey.

  5. ColonelClaw
    Stop

    They deserve it

    If you're too tight fisted to spend 35 Euros on this quite excellent program then you deserve everything you get.

  6. Nick Pettefar

    Mac Viruses?

    T'other day I succumbed to a temporary wave of fear and curiosity and installed that there Sophos free Mac anti-virus software on my MacBook I bought in 2007.

    Sure enough it found three viruses. Aye.

    All three were from wayback when and all were Windoze ones. I just deleted them. e-Mail attachments from Windoze users.

    I have now de-installed it.

    I'll install it again and re-run it in a year or two.

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