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Hackers are now targeting Android Apps to Mine Cryptocurrencies

Cryptocurrency mining | Hacking and mining cryptocurrencies | latest cryptocurrency news | latest bitcoin news |

While new and emerging technologies certainly do create a lot of opportunities in the real world, it has always got a dark side to it. As per researchers, hackers from around the globe are now hunting Android Apps to secretly mine cryptocurrencies. A recently discovered hidden code has exposed this suspicious activity of secretly mining coins on Android devices by exploiting apps in the Google Play Store.

In a recent blog post by security company Trend Micro, they have found a malicious mining code which exploits the computing power from your Android devices without the user’s consent or knowledge. The hacking code is supposed to have been using Javascript loading along with native code injection which prevents the possibility of being detected by Google Play. This hacking code will run in the background and is pushed in the system through compromised apps, causing heavy CPU load during operation. These miners have been named as ANDROIDOS_CPUMINER and ANDROIDOS_JSMINER.

Researchers have found the apps to be using the same code as developed by the notorious Coin Hive who have also planted a similar code on other websites. Once users visit these websites, the scripts are downloaded on their PC/Laptops which then start to exploit the computing resources and carry out mining operations without the knowledge of the victim.

In the blogpost, the security researchers have claimed “These threats highlight how even mobile devices can be used for cryptocurrency mining activities, even if, in practice, the effort results in an insignificant amount of profit. Users should take note of any performance degradation on their devices after installing an app”.

Till now, there have been 25 such legitimate versions of different apps who have been identified to have been hijacked which carries malicious code and mining libraries. However, after TrendLabs contacted Google, these apps have now been removed from the Play Store. Although, such a possibility of exploiting apps on the Google Play Store raises serious questions on Google’s security checking features for the apps listed on Play Store.

With the increasing popularity of cryptocurrencies, cybercriminals are looking for all sorts of vulnerabilities in the apps and computers servers and withdraw your computing resources to benefit to their end.

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