This year has seen a surge in the use of crypto currency for trading and purchases. The fact that it can be so easily used can work against you if hackers are allowed to enter your computer.
One such hacker, a staff member at the University of Applied
Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland (FHNW),
is accused of creating a trojan virus to steal coins from unsuspecting crypto
currency holder digital wallets. The virus was named the Megacoin Market Price
Gadget. The 'application' purported to provide a live ticker for Megacoin wallet
holders. Links to the virus package were posted on several of the crypto coin
based forums for unsuspecting crypto currency users.
The virus could be downloaded and installed in a system that contained digital wallets. The suspected virus author, Stefan Buehlmann, is an expert at hiding virus signatures, so that a scan of the application did not reveal that it contained a virus. Stefan Buehlmann also fronts a anti-hacker web site 'JoeSecurity.org' that provides anti-malware software and malware protection advisories. A 'whois' search of joesecurity.org will reveal the contact information for Stefan Buehlmann.
Once installed, the virus seeks out several of the many popular crypto currency wallets on the infected system and then initiates send coin transactions to wallets established by the hacker. Since digital wallets are 'owned' anonymously, the owner of the wallet receiving the coins is unknown to other members of the crypto currency community. The virus application was posted initially on December 7, 2013 and it was downloaded and installed on several crypto currency holder's computers. The vitus went into action and transferred hundreds of thousands of coins into the hacker's wallets. The virus was quickly unmasked, but the damage had been done. Even though the warnings went out on the forums, the coins had been pilfered from many unsuspecting wallet holders.
Stefan Buehlmann
The hack was traced back to JoeSecurity.org and efforts to recover the coins from the suspect, Buehlmann have failed. All efforts to communicate with Buehlmann have met with no response.