Bitcoin Hackers Monitoring 2.3 Million Bitcoin Addresses
On June 13th, 2018, Chinese security firm Qihoo 360 Total Security announced the discovery of a cryptocurrency clipboard hijacker that infected over 300,000 computers. A recent analysis by Bleeping Computer revealed that the problem is even more widespread than originally believed.
Far greater than the original estimate of 400,000-600,000 monitored cryptocurrency addresses, the analysis reported that the bug monitors 2.3 million bitcoin addresses in hope of stealing the world’s most valuable digital currency.
The Trojan operates by monitoring the clipboard activity of computers to detect if it contains a string similar to Bitcoin or Ethereum addresses. If detected, it then tampers with the receiving address to redirect the transfer to their own wallet.