The day before, we discussed a newly discovered ransomware strain named and themed after former president Barack Obama. According to the initial investigations, the strain was classified only as a screen locker. However, some new evidence suggests that the locker ransomware “Barack Obama’s Everlasting Blue Blackmail Virus” is more than what it actually appears to be.
Researchers have now found out that the given cryptovirological strain also seizes the computing power of the targeted device to mine one of the leading cryptocurrency Monero. This pernicious combination in a malware has been detected for the first time. This twofold activity of the malware also suggests that it has been developed by a group of seasoned cybercriminals.
Cybersecurity team who discovered the strain successfully completed ransomware removal of the given strain without facing any major snag. However, the device started to work with a sluggish pace after ransomware removal. Security team immediately picked up this anomaly. Upon looking on the programs running in the background, they found out that the device was being used to mine cryptocurrency.
Even though researchers have removed the background program responsible for cryptomining, but the incident has rung an alarm bell for the digital security of individual users. A lot of people are still oblivious to the existence of ransomware threat and to the presence of crypto miner running in the background.
A win-win situation for the developers
Packaging two malicious activities into a single malware will prove to be a win-win strategy for the operators. Even if they don’t succeed in getting extortion money for ransomware removal, they can still use the computation of the affected device for the mining of cryptocurrency. The development of this double-edged malware is also symbolic because the instances of ransomware attacks and cryptomining are only increasing with time.
