Over Thirty-Five Thousand Computers Infected With Crypto Mining Malware In Peru, Says Report

A report from ESET, a cyber-security firm, confirms over thirty-five thousand computers have been infected with a cryptocurrency mining malware since June 2019. The hackers targeted Windows computers with more than ninety percent of the spotted computers in South America’s Peru.

As per the hacking news outlet, The Hacker News, the botnet cryptocurrency-malware, dubbed “Victory Gate”, stretched out over Latin America in the initial days of 2019. The malware has advanced to more than thirty-five thousand Windows since May 2019. Notably, the most widespread virtual currency that is being mined on the infected computers is Monero, the privacy-focused coin.

As per the report on the malware hack, the majority of the computers were infected by means of detachable devices like USB drives that install an infected payload into the system. After getting installed, the botnet offers several commands to the node. The report mentions,

“It has been active since at least May 2019 and, since then, 3 different variants of the initial module have been identified, in addition to approximately ten secondary payloads that are downloaded from file hosting websites.”