Cryptocurrency Mining Malware "Loapi" Is Capable Of Melting Your Smartphones

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Kaspersky Lab has published a report about an Android malware named "Loapi" which mines the cryptocurrency without the user's consent. It not only starts mining but also shows advertisements and automatically charges the user to subscribe the paid service. It also breaches the DDos security. This mining module causes so much damage to the device that just after two days usage of it can do a significant damage to the device. In the above photo, the device got heated to the point that its battery began to swell.

Loapi works by Hijacking the processor of the phone and starts using the computing power to mine cryptocurrency through complex algorithms for confirming the cryptocurrency transactions which generate new units of currency in the blocks. Once it has entered the smartphones, it becomes almost impossible to detect it if there is no antivirus in the phone.

Samples of the Loapi family are distributed via advertising campaigns,” the blog states. “Malicious files are downloaded after the user is redirected to the attackers’ malicious web resource. We found more than 20 such resources, whose domains refer to popular antivirus solutions and even a famous porn site."

Cyber criminals are leveraging the processing power of computers, phones, and other devices to generate money from the mining of cryptocurrency and Loapi is for sure their latest weapon in this trend.

An adblocking company has published the report in the month of October stating that over 500 million people are unknowingly mining cryptocurrencies through their devices when they visit some websites that run mining algorithms in the background of their device. They might not be aware of it.

Some popular websites, including Showtime and the torrenting site ThePirateBay, are also using the same thing to mine cryptocurrency with the power of the user's computer.

Very soon this will replace the ad revenue program like Google Adsense and others to become a legitimate and sustainable source of making money for websites, but first the permission from the visitor should be granted.

Read The Whole Report By Kaspersky Here