Bitcoin Forum

If you are fond of watching Youtube and clicking links on it this is something you should be aware of

More of this story here:
https://cointelegraph.com/news/cyber-criminals-are-using-youtube-to-install-cryptojacking-malware

This is really alarming nowadays, first they started those kind of airdrops or donation like if send x amount of ethereum  you eill get x amount of ethereum.

And now this, for sure Youtube will start enforcing this kind of crimes.
Main target of this crime are those not so techy and newbies in cryptocurrency.
P.S. if anyone can will see like this or suspecious, just press the report button so it will take down immediately.

Cyber criminals are always finding new ways to make easy money. Good thing that it is discovered but how long thus this kind of crypto jacking been around. Since monero became popular this is the new favourite of cybercriminals nowadays.

It is always best not to click on whatever link you can find in any site, even if that site is as popular as youtube or any other social media sites such as facebook, twitter, instagram, etc. It is not even good to open random mails and click on the links provided there. If you can see or receive mails or links through PMs in whatever site coming from a random account or user, better delete it immediately. Better safe than sorry.

You definitely need an antivirus program. If you dont have one you will sooner or latter get some program to empty your wallets.

Not a big fan of the title since it seems to suggest that the virus spreads through YouTube as a potential vector while it only uses YouTube video descriptions to communicate with mining proxy servers to receive mining jobs, but it's pretty surprising nevertheless that the developers of this virus are choosing to use YouTube as a potential way of avoiding detection via using YouTube descriptions to hide the true IPs of the proxies. Seems like through the actual source site from which this article cites the YouTube videos that have been identified as providing the proxy IPs to the miners have been taken down, but it's both likely and possible that there's new videos up now that do the same thing that haven't been detected yet.

It's true that the virus utilizes YouTube for its crypto mining portion, but from another link from the original article (click for link) (https://www.welivesecurity.com/2017/07/20/stantinko-massive-adware-campaign-operating-covertly-since-2012/) detailing the virus, it seems like it first arrives onto computers mostly through torrented downloads for pirated software.

Youtube is not a place to download softwares. 90% of those available in youtube description and comments are loaded with malwares and adwares. You can visit Youtube to watch a tutorial but you should visit the official websites to download the legit copy of the software. People even fall for obviously malware content like bitcoin generators and bitcoin collecting bots.

This is the same as the case of a film streaming website that many people watch today. This virus mining module will utilize your CPU speed and processing resources to mine monero Kopin. Computers will feel heavy because they are forced to run mining programs. An infected device will continue to mine which the owner of the device will not see. each connected to the internet virus miner module will start the mining process.

I've heard about this malware before and I am pretty sure that it can really deceive people that are not aware that their computer was being infected. I think this is already widely spread because there are still people who are not aware of it. We should help others to spread awareness and help people get rid of it.

Putting the link in the description box and that is an old strategy how the scammer was spreading the malware. As you can see we can't even trust any links that has already mentioned in the description box. But the creator will always say to support the creator and it will better to hit the link in the description and i hope people will aware if this is another way to spread the malware. I never click any link from strange in my life. Oh god, why so many fucking scammer and hackers these days.
But this is an old strategy.

Probably one way to pulled off another deadly trick again to the public. YouTube is very famous ground for cypto reviews and community. Even campaign YouTube is a top spot earning category for participants. For newbies be careful, this kind of trick is not a joke. Malwares are now improving and we better avoid this kind of virus which can penetrate our wallets.

As i have a experience about Cyber security i can surely say it only be done using exploits.

There are so many attacker they always looking for such things (exploits) Even they pay thousands of dollars for it

Methods to prevent:

#1 always update your installed apps/Softwares,

#2 do not click on ads,

#3 do not install apps/ Softwares from unknown sources

#4 do not open any PDF file received from unknown person

Note: Mostly this can be done through Jscript To install malwares

Any help should be enforce in order to provide awareness and lessen those newbies to be victimized of such actions. There's no safe place now to anyone, it's your obligations to protect yourself from possible hacks by ensuring that you are well protected and the first rule, never to click any links without knowing what is behind the site that you will going to visit. Reporting do a very big help to allow the site to trace those illegal activities.

This is already happening for so many years. even Youtube having so much link to malware in many videos disguising as hacking tool or even cheating tool for certain games. I thought that people could figure it out that such a thing is phishy but I guess i'm wrong considering that the infected device from this Crypto jacking software alone is already 500,000 devices. What makes me afraid the most is chrome extension that could possibly contain virus and could log my activities unbeknown by myself than these link to install random software which kinda obvious.

Interesting..


But:

I guess the best thing youtube should have done is to suspend all the channels until proper investigation is carried out. What if some of the channels are innocent?
If a wealthy and psychopathic hacker wants millions of channels removed, all he/she needs to do is to pay millions of youtubers to promote the infected links. In the end, millions of channels will be removed... and the bait taken by both the youtubers and youtube.

I doubt it, i think only windows will be affected, if you don't click on phishing links through websites or mail on phone you will be safer using your phone more than using windows pc

Particl team invented "Cold staking" for a reason. If you hold a POS coin and it does not have Cold staking abilities please use a designated computer just for staking, all other  pow coins like BTC etc should be held also in "Cold storage" aka offline/paper wallets etc.

Use your head and take precautions necessary to protect yourself, these criminals will only pray on you IF you make it "Easy".

Thanks for the info. We must be more careful and strengthen the antivirus and defense of our laptop or PC.
There are so many ways for them to steal money, data or anything that is valuable to us. I once lost some crypto because of a chrome extension which turned out to cover the destination address with the address of the owner of the extension. As a result my money disappeared and went into his wallet. And this has happened twice before I realized that the extension was the culprit.

The cyber criminal finding a new trikes to stolen our crypto currencies using youtube to install jacking software it is really scarey because i will watching video's in youbute more then 2 hours in a days sometime i will check advertising links in youtube, after readings this i am sure i never going to check any advertisements links in youtube without knowing well.

to watch out for, fraudsters are increasingly sophisticated now. they use youtube, where youtube is now one of the most desirable people including crypto owners. so I think we should try to be careful and also act immediately if there is anything suspicious

I love this lines of yours, and that is correct, the safety should always start with us, especially in the world of internet and cryprocurrency world.
Basic understanding about this is important, non-techy or techy should able to learn these kind of things to avoid losing some money.

Hijacking softwares can only infect windows and pc user, this is yet another reason why i think smartphones are safer than computers, only phishing scams can work on phones or when you download fake apps

The best is to not even click the link at all. When you already have some sort of doubt then what is the point in clicking it and verifying its security with some sort of antivirus. The result would be definitely hundred percent positive. There than carelessness, curiosity can be considered the problem with humans that force them to commit foolish fatal acts. YouTube is for watching the videos, not clicking here and there.

I have known this for sometimes but I didn't know it can be used in stealing beyond minor information and virus attacks. There seem to be no bound to the extent this cryptocurrency thieves will not go to perpetrate their evils.

Be careful who you follow on YouTube. If they are asking you to download plug ins or extensions, don't trust them quickly. They might create good, entertaining and useful videos but don't settle for your security by just clicking download links on their description boxes.
There are scams and hacks that are scattered on that platform so if you are not concerned with your security just avoid them.

This is nothing new. It has been going on for decades. Spreading malware through video content that contains links that will infect your computer. You just have to be careful. Why in the first place would you be clicking some random link given by a random YouTube creator? Is this because you will be getting "free" coins? Then I am sorry to say, you deserve to get your computer infected and lose everything. At least you will be learning a lesson.

Yeah, and with the increasing number of people involving themselves in this space, youtube can be a safe haven for cyber criminals, unless someone can spot it up early and report it to youtube.

By the way, we have this thread, Scammers on Youtube. Don't fall into this scam trap and lose money, guys (https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5198456.0).

botnet has infiltrated many tutorial channels and crypto affiliate programs, but not for crypto channels that focus at least on podcasts. Can be prevented by using ESET because the notification alarm immediately appears as a pop-up. This crime is not the first time and they continue to look for loopholes that mostly stem from user behavior.

Somedays people will be smart enough to not install anything from strange sources

It's becoming more dangerous for crypto users since hackers are continuously upgrading their ways of hacking. And now even YouTube where a lot of users are also into YouTube. Why does some people use their intelligence wrongly?
Well since ever since there's already a lot of issue with hacking, we really should be extra careful clicking links so seems suspicious... Just wanna tell people here to be careful.

that is easy . if hackers are upgrading then why shall we ? we can also upgrade by reading the latest news such as this  . so that we are informed if what new style hacker use and we can avoid them before we got victimized  . that is true that youtube is growing and almost ever people use this streaming site to watch anything   .  i can detect possible hacks and hi jacks but im  still feel a little bit worried on some people that just follow any link because they expect that they can get what they lookin for  .

That should have been what is happening since its more than decades that we are already in the digital age. I'm suspicious to the files I'm downloading if the link I click, though comes from the right domain where the original creator but redirects me to a mirror. Its very suspicious that I'd like to make sure I'm downloading to the real website and not to tech site like softonic, cnet, or filehippo because its just not safe.

Cyber criminals are always looking, and always innovating some new moves and motives. Who are prone in this scheme are those people who are trusting specially they do think youtube are composed of mostly influencer and trustworthy people. Which is not good for crypto environment and must be avoid such thinking immediately.

If you should have an idea, how tricky ways are used for stealing from the crypto channel users, I doubt you will convince yourself with the safe software. Even 2 victims from the 100 people download the malware-infected file from the youtube advertisement explanation board, it is quite a successful hack attack for the hacker group, in my humble opinion. They have also special skills for bypassing the security software.

All I can say it that I am glad that I use eset nod32 this makes me feel good and confident. The next is that I am glad I do not own Monero since the dev team said their own wallet could be infected and used to mine in the background of your pc. Most of this is malware and is not installed and just runs in the background. All you need to do is leave the page.

Youtube should do action about this since they are accepting video ads on crypto. For the sake of those naive or noob people who are easy to fall in a trap. I think this is very alarming news because from now on we don't easily trust any clickable links on youtube. We should be careful about this, much better if we avoid clicking pop up ads on youtube on the video creator as well. Every now and then hackers will always find a ways to have a easy money and looking to anyone who will be the next victim, so let's just be careful.

Most of this youtube ads are security  holes for people watching them, there are some adblocks and software that see this ahead of time and prevent the hack from installing these malicious softwares on ones system. I will advice people not using hardwallet to please install them they re a must

Clicking on YouTube ads very risky now a days.better to use good antivirus and need to scan pc everyday.Few days ago I faced few problems but not this problem. After scan my pc found threat.Though now my pc working well.             

We just have to cautious of clicking any link or ad whether malicious or not to avoid hackers gaining access or stealing our vital information, the OP had exposed the latest strategy that is used to scam especially newbies by dangling a carrot ie giving XMR coin as a bait thus to scam unsuspecting users. So many of these scrupulous and fraudulent activities had been uncovered in the past however those scammers wouldn't relent on this nefarious activities carefullness should be our watch word.

All these security issues around the cryptocurrency and blockchain space is really becoming a major cause for concern.  How can people be safe?  Even YouTube is been used to engineer these potential breaches, even in a seemingly bear market. I really hope that these practises are curtailed before they result in serious losses for people.  I guess I'll have to buy a hardware wallet and move my crypto from my mobile wallet.  It's the only thing I can think of.

Wow, this is a very imaginative thing. I thought it only spread on links to virus sites. This market now has too many scammers and hackers. It seems that it is no longer safe and we should withdraw all the money before everything is too late.

Internet is so scary place when you dont know anything about security

This is troubling because cyber criminals are now targeting popular social media platform like youtube and this is likely to happen with other platform as well. it looks like that the crypto boom is inspiration for this hackers as they become more aggressive these days.

That is why you should educate yourself, I have seen big celebrity getting their account hacked and hackers asking huge money to give their account back if you are not a popular person and you are just here to use Facebook, hackers will not likely target you, but if you are working online and an investors, you should double your effort in protecting yourself, because you will lose everything you've work for.

This is become alarm for us to very careful about click a link but unfortunately now it happen on you tube. We know you tube is the biggest audio video platform that use many people to promote things and get income. It will give negative impact into youtuber and can minimalism their income. That's youtuber problem and I think we need to find solution, fast.

This is very alarming they are now using social media like youtube that have an international access. All we know that cases of scam and fraud are now continue to increase. We need to be carefull in every action that we do here in crypto because it is too risky and do not open unknown link even in other social media.

It's rather unfortunate that cyber criminals are always a step ahead devising means for their victims. The only way out of this impending danger is to be very careful of the links clicked while browsing and use a good anti virus that could prevent the installation of these malwares.

Indeed, we should be vigilant and not click on links that we do not recognize, especially using shortlinks. Currently many modes are used to steal coins in our wallet or use the device that we use for mining and the best alternative is not to randomly click on links on the internet

When we browse a cryptocurrency content we should really careful with any links that refers to a website that we don't know because most of cryptocurrency websites are planted with malware or phising tools that can detect our password or something that can copy their address and when we want to send balance, we will paste their website address instead of our address. So, it's really dangerous for the newbie crypto people who just invested in crypto

Anyone installed crypto wallet on their mobile or desktop need to double think before clicking every links at internet because single mistake can cost everything from your wallet.Antivirus may detect these trojans but we can't be sure with that always so keep your device safe.

Everything where there is a link could potentially be scam, especially on your emails, social media or on this forum. Pay attention to things like this, be aware and try not to get caught by doing simple mistakes.