Kaspersky Lab detects virus that steals bitcoin & other cryptocurrencies

Cybercriminals are targeting digital currencies such as bitcoin, ethereum, zcash, dash, monero and others, according to the company. However, the maximum losses were borne by owners of bitcoin-wallets with nearly 23 bitcoins worth over $160,000 stolen. Sums stolen from other digital wallets are ranging from a few dollars to several thousand.

“Cryptocurrency is not a far-off technology anymore. Lately, we have observed an increase in malware attacks targeting different types of cryptocurrencies and we expect this trend to continue,” Sergey Yunakovsky, a malware analyst at Kaspersky Lab, said in a statement.

The new virus, named CryptoShuffler, activates itself when a targeted user attempts to transfer money from one wallet to another. The procedure requires the recipient’s wallet ID, which commonly consists of a long set of symbols and is impossible to memorize, making a user apply a copy-paste option.

The process involves copying wallets' numbers and pasting them into the “destination address” line of the software that is used to carry out a transaction. At that stage, CryptoShuffler starts to monitor the device's clipboard, utilized by a victim when making a payment.

The virus replaces the wallet with one owned by the creator, which means that a user pastes the wallet ID, not in the address they originally intended to send money to. As a result, a user transfers his or her money directly to cybercriminals, unless the user spots the sudden replacement.