Crypto-currency isused to battling an ever-increasing surge of malware infiltration, but now a‘light-hearted’ example has been causing some Microsoft Security Essentials(MSE) users some heartache.
While the Norwegian-spawnedcrypto mining virus spreads through the community, now the ghost of virusespast has surfaced to add some (non-lethal) panic to the mixture.
Block chain headache
MSE forums user edc678voiced concern last week over a signature from veteranDOS/STONED virus being added to the block chain. “It appears to be a joke or prank, simply because this particular virusdoes nothing more than periodically show "YOUR COMPUTER HAS BEENSTONED" on one out of every eight computer boot-ups,” the user wrote.
While only thesignature was uploaded and not the virus itself, there is no threat to users ofany sort. The problems arise, however, when MSE flags up the signature as apotential threat, resulting in the need for users to cleanse the ‘infected’file, which in this case means the block chain file.
With the block chain historygone, users would need to re-download it, which requires some time as it iscurrently 17,405 megabytes, according to Blockchain.info.
“…its constant alerts of finding threats in theblockchain is not only worrisome, but can create panic and a negativeperception of Bitcoin as a whole, damaging its reputation and annoying users,” edc678 continues.
The threat for themeantime appears to be contained and reported only by a small number of MSEclients, however. The DOS/STONED virus first surfaced in 1987, making it anunlikely cause of today’s block chain insecurity.
Crude masquerade
Meanwhile, whilereporting that Bitcoin malware has increased by 25% since 2013, InternetSecurity provider Kaspersky Labs has fallen foul of its own adversary,PCWorld.com reports.
Albeit not a miningapp like those found and removed from Google Play earlier this month, the fakeapp impersonates Kasperksy’s security product, while in fact offering noprotection whatsoever to the paying user.
“This app, which also had to be paid for upfront, went by the name of Kaspersky Mobile. The fact that there is no programwith that name in Kaspersky Lab’s product line didn’t deter the fraudsters –they obviously didn’t expect anyone to notice,” a blog post from Kaspersky expert Roman Unuchek furthernotes.
“The fake app, which was available for 149rubles or around $4, used Kaspersky’s logo and other branding elements and evenpretended to scan files when run.”
While relativelyharmless compared to mining malware, the app itself was new in being listed onWindows Phone Store, Kaspersky says, as Google Play was previously the venue ofchoice for scammers.