Cisco Systems Discover New Monero Botnet That Steals Data

The intelligence team at Cisco systems recently discovered a Monero botnet that steals data from the victims in a new cryptojacking scheme named “Prometei.” This botnet mines monero (XMR) and steals the data from the targeted systems so let’s find out more in the upcoming Monero news.

According to a research paper, the botnet was active since May and it relies on 15 executable modules to recover the administrator passwords from the computer that got infected. The password validity is verified by sending them to another control server that is connected to other networks. Once the malware obtains the address to the users’ administrative rights, it will then go on and record all data that is locked in the system.

Cisco systems estimated that the Monero botnet could contain up to 1000 systems at any point in time and the botnet is now running with a hash generating frequency of more than 1M Hash per second. A researcher at Cisco Talos Vanja Svajcer stated that the Prometei botnet earns its owner around 1500 USD per month and clarified that this doesn’t sound like much compared with other systems, it does, however, earn well over an average salary in some countries:

 “Stealing credentials is the most dangerous part of the Prometei botnet. You could consider the attacker with its bot being a burglar in your home. Naturally, the burglar searches all the drawers and finds various keys. They take keys with them and ask somebody else (another infected system) to check if any of the keys work on your car, safe deposit box etc. Obviously, when criminals break into a house it opens up a whole new set of opportunities. It is very similar to this botnet.”

The study stated that Prometei made a moderate profit for a single developer that is “most likely” based in Eastern Europe. As per the recent reports on malware, that targets old vulnerabilities in the Windows operating system in an effort to mine more XMR.

Also, as recently reported according to a Weiss rating analyst who stated that the users that care about privacy started learning that Zcash has better features and it managed to increase the interest in investors, emphasizing that there will be a big change soon. Zcash’s recent Heartwood update could affect Monero’s loss because thanks to the update, all of the obstacles for integration of third parties are removed and there are better privacy features created.