Fear of a new IT threat around bitcoin

A malicious code concealed in pornographic sites would be the potential enemy.

Bitcoin, which is already trading above $ 6,000, generated a new form of computer threat that secretly uses the computers of those who browse some websites to create this virtual currency.

Unlike what happens with the physical currency that is printed by a government's decision, bitcoin is created by a system that is known as "mining" that uses computers distributed around the world and, in turn, generates a gain to who renders the hardware of your device for that action.

At the beginning of this month a code was discovered that hiding in hundreds of websites took advantage of the visit of an Internet user and, without this one realizes, it used its computer to mine bitcoins and to keep the gain.

According to the BBC, the company Palo Alto Networks found at least 150 domains with such codes hidden under the facade of pornographic sites.

"The use of such mining tools is not in itself a malicious activity. It is the way it is used that makes it malicious," said Yuchen Zhou, security specialist at that company.

Most of these codes behave like malware, a virus that intrudes on users' computers and uses resources without permission. In portable devices, for example, the code can deplete the batteries very quickly.

In this regard, many antivirus companies have updated their software to now identify and deactivate mining, but in addition, the creators of the first of these codes released a version of its software that extracts coins only if users give their explicit permission.

The growing number of coin miners started a discussion among Google engineers working on the Chrome browser: "Yes, we should do something about it," said Ojan Vafai, an engineer at the company.