Starbucks store’s WiFi hijacked laptops to mine cryptocurrency
A Starbucks store located in Buenos Aires was recently caught mining cryptocurrency using visitors’ laptops that were connected to its public WiFi network. The mining was the result of malware, which Starbucks has since taken care of. The issue was made known by Noah Dinkin, who alerted Starbucks and the public to the mining via a tweet.
According to Dinkin via his tweet below, the store’s WiFi network introduced a ten-second delay when a user first connected to it. During that time, the user’s computer was briefly used to mine for a variety of cryptocurrency called Monero. The unannounced and unauthorized use of someone’s laptop for currency mining would result in poorer computer performance, potentially making their laptop sluggish and slow while interfering with their intended activities. The activity could also have resulted in a higher electricity bill, assuming the laptops were plugged in.
