Cybercriminals are trying to capitalize on the popularity of the Marvel franchise to distribute crypto mining malware, according to a new report. Researchers from security firm ReasonLabs have warned that a malicious torrent file masquerading as the new Spider-Man: No Way Home movie is circulating. Downloading the torrent infects the victim’s device with malware used for mining cryptocurrencies.
To avoid detection, the malware can also add exceptions to Windows Defender.
Despite being relatively harmless in terms of data security, cryptomining malware sucks up a large portion of the affected computer’s memory, significantly reducing performance. They can also cause high electricity bills for the victim.
As always, researchers are specifically targeting torrents of sought-after content like new movies, music or TV shows. That’s why people should be very careful when downloading content and not turn to pirated content.
At the most basic level, users should always double-check the file extension before running the file. A movie is usually . mp4 extension, while music . mp3 file format should be used. Apps (including malware) usually have . are exe files.
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