South Korea: Five Arrested In A New Crypto Mining Malware Case Involving 6,000+ PCs

A new case from South Korea is in the latest cryptocurrency news, this time for illicitly injecting crypto mining malware into more than 6,000 computers in the country. According to the report from the Korean National Police Agency Cyber Bureau, the group consisted of five hackers led by a 24-year old named Kim Amu-gae, all in total releasing 32,435 emails containing cryptocurrency mining malware that targeted desktop users in South Korea.

Over a period of two months, the group managed to send messages containing malware to tens of thousands of job applicants, posing as employees in the company they applied for. According to the police report, the hackers obtained the email addresses of job applicants in large-scale conglomerates in the tech sector.

The group is now suspected of sending emails that contained malware disguised in the form of documents and files that were sent to individuals who filed their applications on recruitment platforms.

The individuals were misled by clicking on the attachments or downloading them believing that the documents were sent by companies, while their computers got compromised with a cryptocurrency mining malware in the background.

The local police said:

“Because cyber security firms and anti-virus software operators responded quickly to the distribution of mining malware, the group of hackers were not able to generate a significant revenue from their operation. In most cases, anti-virus software detected the malware within three to seven days. If the malware was detected, the hackers sent new malware, but it was detected again by anti-virus software,”

Carried into over 6,000 actively used computers, the operation managed to only generate $1,000 in profit in total.