Search engine giant Google has recently clamped down on a crypto-jacking Bitcoin botnet that had affected millions of computers.
According to the civil complaint Google had filed yesterday, “Glupteba”, the name of the botnet had infected more than a million machines via unknowingly mining Bitcoin. Moreover, Google has filed a complaint against Dmitry Staroviko and Alexandar Filippov.
Besides them, there are 15 more unknown individuals on the list. The search engine giant has alleged that these individuals mined cryptocurrencies on victims computers via the botnet.
Also, they utilized the botnet to steal victims’ account information and sell it to third parties. More than that, the botnet itself took advantage of blockchain technology, securing itself against traditional tools. Unfortunately, this made it harder for anti-malware software to detect and act against these types of malicious activities.
In its blog post, executives at Google have tried to explain the severity of this botnet:
“It effectively turned bitcoin’s decentralization into an asset that made it much harder to shut down.”
According to Chainalysis, which helped in Google’s investigation, the botnet “weaponized” bitcoin blockchain. They consider this botnet as a step ahead of the cybersecurity whack-a-mole. This is because the botnet embedded command-and-control server addresses in the blockchain.
The complaint by Google went into detail about how “Glupteba Enterprise” could potentially use it to direct new malware.
Although Google states that it has already disrupted the botnet, there is always a possibility of resurrection. This is majorly because it runs on the Bitcoin Blockchain.
In its conclusion, the complaint said:
“The Glupteba botnet cannot be eradicated entirely without neutralizing its blockchain-based infrastructure.”
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