Discovering botnets digging huge encrypted money earns $ 8,500 a day for hackers

A giant cryptocurrency botnet called Smominru, which has taken control of more than half a million computers worldwide, has been discovered by security researchers. This botnet spreads the EternalBlue lane, the NSA's WannaCry exploit method developed but accidentally revealed it.

Smominru turned the infected computer into a Monero pre-coding digger. The hijacking of computer networks by hackers to other pre-coding cascades has happened before but Smominru stands out by its size. Smominru is twice as big as the botnet of pre-coding Adylkuzz.

Discovering botnets digging huge encrypted money earns $ 8,500 a day for hackers Picture 1 Discovering botnets digging huge encrypted money earns $ 8,500 a day for hackers Picture 1

Researchers at Proofpoint said that Smominru botnets can be created by 526,000 nodes at the peak of the time. It is estimated that Smominru botnet can bring about $ 8,500 per day to its owner. And since this botnet was launched in May 2017, it has exploited 8,900 Monero, worth about $ 2.8 to $ 3.6 million to its owners.

Most of the buttons in Smominru botnet are Windows servers, machines with processing power and continuous operability. Most organizations do not know their servers are becoming a node in the Smominru botnet.

According to security experts, hackers use at least 25 servers to detect Windows computers that can be attacked by EternalBlue. In addition, to increase the number of nodes for botnets, they also use the EsteemAudit exploit method for the RDP vulnerability on Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP.

Discovering botnets digging huge encrypted money earns $ 8,500 a day for hackers Picture 2 Discovering botnets digging huge encrypted money earns $ 8,500 a day for hackers Picture 2

This is a highly flexible botnet that can be self-repaired, although at a time when functional units knocked out a third of the Smominru botnet, it quickly recreated itself, even in the future. It also developed into a larger network than the current half million.

The majority of infected systems are located in Russia, India and Taiwan.

Currently, the most popular crypto currency is still bitcoin, but digital miners are slowly turning to alternatives such as Monero, a highly private currency and the ability to quickly exchange cash.

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