“SecureMac has discovered a new Trojan Horse called OSX/CoinThief.A, which targets Mac OS X and spies on web traffic to steal Bitcoins. This malware has been found in the wild, and there are multiple user reports of stolen Bitcoins,” SecureMac reports. “The malware, which comes disguised as an app to send and receive payments on Bitcoin Stealth Addresses, instead covertly monitors all web browsing traffic in order to steal login credentials for Bitcoin wallets.”
“Initial infection occurs when a user installs and runs an app called ‘StealthBit,'” which was recently available for download on GitHub, a website that acts as a repository for open source code,” SecureMac reports. “The source code to StealthBit was originally posted on GitHub, along with a precompiled copy of the app for download. The precompiled version of StealthBit did not match a copy generated from the source code, as it contained a malicious payload. Users who downloaded and ran the precompiled version of StealthBit instead ended up with infected systems. A user posting over the weekend on Reddit, the popular discussion site, reported losing 20 Bitcoins (currently worth upwards of $12,000 USD) to the thieves.”
Read more in the full article here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Russian authorities say Bitcoin illegal – February 10, 2014
Enraged Bitcoin true believers shoot, smash iPhones after Apple yanks Bitcoin app from App Store – February 6, 2014
Apple pulls ‘Blockchain’ Bitcoin app from iTunes App Store – February 6, 2014
Apple App Store’s rocky relationship with Bitcoin apps – December 10, 2013
Only cry the victim can do .
Life hands us such unhappiness. What can anyone do?
I can see why bitcom smashed the iPhone.
Bitcoin well that was fun while it lasted. Soon to be seen on the History Channel.
Seems a bit like, “Well, duh!”
A user posting over the weekend on Reddit, …
Must be true then.
I don’t carry much cash in my wallet. I don’t keep much cash in my home. This is because cash can be lost or stolen, and I’d rather keep it safely in my bank account. So why in the world would I want to keep tens of thousands of dollars in virtual cash on my hard drive?
This is just stupid. Shove 50 grand into your mattress, and people will think you’re a crazy hoarder or a criminal. Keep the same amount or more as ones and zeroes on your computer, and you’re a radical cutting-edge cryptocurrency devotee!
——RM
And this is why Apple and Russia are banning Bitcoin. If someone steals your bitcoins, you have no recourse and no ability to recover them.
I saw a story a couple of months ago about a guy who had bought a bunch of bitcoins for about $0.04 each, and now they were worth over $1,000 (or whatever the price is). Only he had forgotten he had bought them and had replaced his hard drive, so he no longer had the bitcoins. They were simply gone, with no ability to recover them except for him to find the hard drive in a landfill.
I smell NSA on this one…
Bitcoin= 21st century Tulip Bubble.
Do not download from unknown sources is a rule as old as the computer virus.