Hackers Infect 4275 Govt Websites With Cryptocurrency Malware That Secretly Takes Over User PCs

The madness around cryptocurrency mining and earning a quick buck has reached a whole new level of crazy, where tech-savvy hackers are infecting websites for their dirty schemes.

Around 4,275 websites were secretly carrying a cryptocurrency malware belonging to Bitcoin's rival. What added insult to injury was the fact that most of these infected websites belonged to the US and UK government. Oops.

Trend Micro

All these websites -- which get over millions of visitors every day -- were hacked to secretly force visitors' computers to run a cryptocurrency mining software for Monero -- a rival cryptocurrency to Bitcoin.

Whenever an unsuspecting user visited any one of the infected US & UK govt websites, a malicious code would start running in the background -- without the user's knowledge, stealing their PC's processing power. The malicious code belonged to a piece of software known as "Coinhive", which literally advertises itself as "A Crypto Miner for your Website", according to security researchers.

ALSO READ: This Insane Bitcoin Mining Rig Is Made Up Of 40 Old Samsung Galaxy S5 Smartphones!

How did this happen?

A snapshot of affected websites

The massive website infection was discovered by researcher Scott Helme, when his friend sent him a weird antivirus warning as soon as he visited a UK government website. Several infected websites later started reporting vulnerabilities or were inaccessible for some time.

Helme quickly found the root of the cryptocurrency malware hack linked to a website plug-in called Browsealoud, which is used to help the blind and partially sighted people access the web more freely.

According to a BBC report, Texthelp -- the company which makes the Browsealoud plug-in -- also confirmed it was affected for hours by malicious code triggered to secretly generate cryptocurrency by taking over PC's resources, as soon as it connected to an infected website.

Ummm, so yeah, this is *bad*. I just had @phat_hobbit point out that @ICOnews has a cryptominer installed on their site... ? pic.twitter.com/xQhspR7A2f

¡ª Scott Helme (@Scott_Helme) February 11, 2018

The vulnerability was found on a bunch of high-profile govt websites, including the UK's Information Commissioner's Office and the US' official Courts system. The Queensland govt's website in Australia and other obscure websites were also part of the cryptocurrency mining malware ring.

Efforts are currently underway to quarantine and eliminate the malicious code infecting all these websites. Some of the US and UK govt websites have already been fixed, but we still don't know if the entire malware system still continues to affect other websites and unsuspecting users.

ALSO READ: Bitcoin Miners Are Using More Electricity Than Ireland & Other 159 Countries. No Kidding.