Bitcoin mining trojans are turning up more

MALWARE RESEARCHERS have warned about increased distribution of Bitcoin mining trojans and point out that some of them have been upgraded to also perform other illegal activities.

Bitcoin is a cash-like peer-to-peer virtual currency that people can use over the internet without the need of intermediary banks or payment processing services. This flexibility and the high degree of anonymity that Bitcoin transactions provide have made the currency very popular in recent months.

Bitcoins are introduced into the market by so-called mining, a virtual process performed according to a pre-established algorithm. Bitcoin mining is a form of cryptographic hash cracking and requires both computing power and luck to perform successfully.