Hello friends of the steemit world, I want to share with you this news that talks about a malicious virus that attacks our cell phones. According to this news, the Trojan virus enters our devices to mine the Monero cryptocurrency, but while doing so it physically destroys the phone.
This is worrying because in these times where cryptocurrencies are booming, other viruses with similar characteristics may appear that secretly take charge of mining cryptocurrencies for the benefit of "others", but to the detriment of our cellular equipment.
Here is the news for your knowledge:

(Article published by Carelin García, on Dec 21, 2017, on the website https://www.criptonoticias.com/seguridad/virus-mina-monero-podria-destruir-telefono-dos-dias/)

VIRUS THAT MINA MONERO COULD DESTROY YOUR PHONE IN TWO DAYS

Kaspersky Lab, the Russian company specialized in cybersecurity, discovered a new Trojan malware that secretly mines from Android phones, which could physically destroy the phone if it is not detected in time.
As explained in the company's blog, the virus works by using the processing power of the phone to mine the Monero cryptocurrency. In addition, the software can also cause numerous advertisements to appear, including videos and redirects to specific web pages, or text messages to specific numbers.

The researchers thoroughly reviewed the details of their encryption, and explained that the malicious software is from the Loapi virus family, which is downloaded through advertising ads that pose as applications of all kinds, from popular antivirus to sites. pornographic After it is installed on the device, the program requests administration permissions again and again until the user accepts them.

A test phone was used by the Kaspersky Lab team and only the energy expenditure of the mining module and the constant traffic of the device on the battery of the smartphone, managed to swell it up to deform the housing of the device in just two days.

"Loapi is an interesting representative of the world of malicious Android apps. Its creators have implemented almost the entire spectrum of techniques to attack devices: the Trojan can subscribe the user to paid services, send SMS messages to any number, generate traffic and make money by displaying advertising, use the computing power of the device to mine cryptocurrencies , as well as using a variety of actions on the internet on behalf of the user / device. The only thing that is missing is the user's espionage, but the modular architecture of this Trojan makes this type of functionality possible at any time"
Nikita Buchka, Anton Kivva and Dmitry Galov
Researchers, Kaspersky Lab

The user of twitter @ bad-packets, claimed to have replicated the experiment in a smart device with Android operating system, using similar malware, but not exactly the same one that was used by the Russian company. The result was the same: 100% CPU usage that resulted in the destruction of the phone's battery.

Malware to mine cryptocurrencies from all types of devices is something previously documented. In Australia has spread one that deceives the user by sending an SMS that promises free bitcoins if you access a specific link. When it is recorded, however, what actually happens is the 'hijacking' of the cellular CPU, which will begin to undermine bitcoin in favor of hackers.
Another related case is that of Quant Trojan, a virus that has been updated in its design to look for credentials of bitcoin portfolios and other cryptoactives. This would be responsible for distributing and infecting computers with Locky and Pony ransomware. Apparently it is available for purchase in clandestine internet forums in Russia.
The use of malware to mine Monero is also known in this type of attacks, a research report issued by the security company ESET detected that a malicious software managed to infect hundreds of Windows web servers to undermine the cryptocurrency blockchain, with that its creators managed to raise the equivalent of $ 63,000 dollars in just 3 months.