Going by the achievements he recorded with his security outfit and research lab McAfee Labs, John McAfee is not a new name in the industry.
He once revealed that he is a crypto enthusiast and investor who believes that the future lies with cryptocurrency. Considering the trust he has gained in public and the security solutions his research lab offers, in one of his posts, he revealed that he charges $105,000 to promote ICOs programs on his social media platforms.
The increase in the number of crypto users had attracted a lot of security companies like Kaspersky and McAfee Labs into the industry since it presently seems to be one of the most profitable irrespective of the high volatility of cryptocurrencies.
A few months ago, Kaspersky discovered a malware attack that was associated with North Korean hackers called 'Lazarus Group' that targeted crypto exchanges.
Recently, McAfee Labs detected a secret malware that mines Monero and Zcash where user devices' were unmasked.
This discovery made by the McAfee research lab originates from Russian attackers where the malware is called 'WebCobra.' The malware downloads the two mining clients in victims device and uses their computer processing power to generate Moreno and Zcash for the attackers.
The McAfee team also stated that device owners will experience a low performance of their computer system when compared to previous times yet, they will not be able to trace the presence of the malware in the device.
The research report stated that:
"Coin mining malware is difficult to detect. Once a machine is compromised, a malicious app runs silently in the background with just one sign: performance degradation."
The researchers from McAfee Lab also added:
"As the malware increases power consumption, the machine slows down, leaving the owner with a headache and an unwelcome bill."
'Cryptojacking' is a new term in the crypto community although the report has shown that it has increased by more than five times this year even though it is less profitable than regular mining. Due to the new nature of cryptocurrency evolution in the world, there is no legislation against crypto jacking activities in many jurisdictions. In China, Russia and US some cryptojackers have been caught and prosecuted for breaching the privacy of users by this mining malware that reduces the processing power of computing devices.