Bitcoins don't look like this. (Photo: ThreatTrack)

A Russian porn website is infecting people’s computers with malware that overtakes their systems to mine for Bitcoins. (Pretty sure that's the most Internetty sentence in history.) PCWorld reports that the malware (called "Fareit") has been circulating for the past six months and only affects Windows computers.

Bitcoin, a decentralized digital currency, is exchanged via peer-to-peer software. But, as PCWorld explains, it takes computer power to "mine" the coins:

New bitcoins are created by mining, or contributing computing power that is used to verify transactions, which are entered into a public ledger called the blockchain.

New blocks are created about every ten minutes, and miners who create a new block are rewarded with 25 bitcoins, the preset reward set by the Bitcoin's system's pseudonymous creator, Satoshi Nakamoto.

Fareit, which was coded in Cyrillic, infiltrates the victim’s computer and installs a mining application to create Bitcoins. The hackers use the computer to compute parts of the blockchain which is then sent to Russian domains.

Since Bitcoin sellers are rewarded for adding more blocks to the chains, the sketchy sites earn a profit from your computer, according to a blog post on security firm ThreatTrack.

To block the threat, keep your antivirus software up-to-date. Or just ignore the existence of Bitcoins

Scumbags. (Photo: Sophos)

The dirtbags who make malware are at it again. Sophos's Naked Security blog reports that scammers are already taking advantage of Monday's bombing at the Boston Marathon, because they have zero sense of decency.

Scammers are sending out emails with subject lines like, "2 Explosions at Boston Marathon," "Aftermath to explosion at Boston Marathon," and "Boston Explosion Caught on Video." Inside the emails is a link to a website with the promised YouTube videos--plus a Windows virus. "Clearly, there are no depths to which cybercriminals are not prepared to stoop in their hunt for victims," Sophos said.

As the Daily Dot points out, it's not the first attempt to capitalize on the horrible incident--see the fake Twitter account that popped up almost immediately, soliciting RTs for $1 donations--and it probably won't be the last. A little skepticism goes a long way. Sophos concludes acidly:

"Remember to be on your guard against such tactics. Maybe it's time to get your news from legitimate news websites rather than an unsolicited email which arrives in your inbox?"

Might want to pass that along to your great aunt that forwards all the chain letters.

(Photo: 24fix.co.uk)

Do you prefer your porn with a side of malware? According to one British researcher, users who visit popular porn sites like PornHub and xHamster have a 42 percent chance of contracting digital STDs (a.k.a. malware) on their computers. Naturally, online porn purveyors sites did not take kindly to the study, which they say overinflated the risk.

PornHub called it "grossly exaggerate(d)," and xHamster said that while it has suffered from malware issues in the past, it's worked hard to find reliable advertising partners that don't infect your computer.

Just remember, folks: your computer can contract a digital STD even from browser-on-infected-ad contact.

(Photo: Github)

Bad news for the porno pervs among us (a.k.a. everyone). As it turns out, websites that stream free porn are actually laden with malware that could completely destroy your computer. But it's totally worth it, right?

Researcher Conrad Longmore told The Telegraph that a number of ads on popular streaming sites like xHamster and PornHub can automatically install malware on your computer. Mr. Longmore said that the sites aren't purposefully hosting malware, but because the process for buying and packaging ads is so complex, they're likely running malicious ads without being aware of it.

Mr. Longmore found that xHamster, for example, has malicious advertising on 5 percent of its content. Since the average user looks at 10 pages per visit, that gives them a 42 percent chance of contracting malware from the site.

Think Bill Gates would give us grant money for a condom that protects against digital STDs?

Malware selfie. (Photo: Hahsgram)

Perhaps Binging it too often has some unintended and harmful side effects. According to a new study from a German security firm, the Microsoft-owned search engine is five times more likely to link you to a malware-infected page than Google.

In a high-tech humblebrag, AV-Test Institute reported that its initial suspicions that Google and Bing do a poor job of protecting their users from delivering Trojan-laden websites were correct. But Google isn’t really a winner here: it’s just that it did a less shitty job of indexing infected websites compared to Bing.

For 18 months, the lab surveyed the harmfulness of 40 million websites from seven search engines. More than half of the results came from Bing and Google, with the other portion being pulled from search sites popular in other countries, like China’s Baidu and Russia’s Yandex.

PC Magazine writes that Yandex was the least safe. You've been warned, Russia's one Betabeat reader.

The 5,000 pieces of malware the study found are concentrated in Yandex results—which had 3,330 malicious links out of the 13 million the AV-Test looked at. Bing had a little under half that, with 1,285 malicious results out of 10 million pages. Google returned a mere 272 malicious results in 10 million while Bleko had even fewer: 203 out of around three million.

Guess we'll go back to using Lycos.

It's like they're TRYING to troll George Orwell. They know he's dead, right? (Photo: screencap, Russia Today)

How's that brave new world  of connected devices faring so far? It's going just great if you're a Russian who drives like a bat out of hell, because some sort of malware infection has got Moscow's network of speed cameras all screwed up. Welcome to the autobahn, baby!

The report comes from Russia's Izvestia, via The Register. The city has an extensive system of cameras designed to catch offenders in the act and mail them tickets. It's supposed to net something like $3.2 million in fines every month, which no doubt buys a whole lot of umbrellas for the meter maids.

Only, the network hasn't been working properly for the last couple of weeks. Research by--who else?--Kaspersky Lab suggests that a virus got into the servers for the Office of Traffic Police, which infected other parts of the system with malware that prevents individual cameras from transmitting. Presumably the perpetrator is someone who's always in a rush to get to the supermarket that closes really early because sometimes you just can't go another day without Ben  & Jerry's, toilet paper and a couple cans of cat food, am I right? 

But it wasn't just newfangled hacking creating problems, though. Some of the cameras had decidedly low-tech problems:

A virus infection may be a secondary cause of failure at many of the 144 camera sites on the network: inspections of the gear at 13 locations revealed evidence that cameras were not connected to a power supply. Dirty glass lenses and corroded metal was also discovered.

Well just unplugging the damn things is one manner of virus protection, we suppose. 

RED OCTOBER

The Russian antivirus firm that first fingered Stuxnet as a state-sponsored cyberattack is outing massive clandestine digital operations once more. This time, Kaspersky Lab says they've uncovered a massive, years-long cyber-espionage campaign. The perpetrators: unknown. Demonstrating a rather charming flare for the dramatic, the Moscow-based researchers have dubbed the network "Red October."

We had long suspected the lads and ladies of Kaspersky were Tom Clancy types.

Researchers announced the discovery in a blog post:

During the past five years, a high-level cyber-espionage campaign has successfully infiltrated computer networks at diplomatic, governmental and scientific research organizations, gathering data and intelligence from mobile devices, computer systems and network equipment.

Whoever it was tipped Kaspersky to the malware "prefers to remain anonymous."

The perpetrators target organizations in the Russian Federation, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia--but North America and Western Europe aren't immune, either. "Hundreds" worldwide have been affected, across categories like military, research institutions, aerospace, oil and gas, and so forth--"all of them in top locations such as government networks and diplomatic institutions."

As for who's behind the network, researchers write that they "strongly believe that the attackers have Russian-speaking origins." However, anybody starts hallucinating the rumbling guns of distant cyberwar:

Currently, there is no evidence linking this with a nation-state sponsored attack. The information stolen by the attackers is obviously of the highest level and includes geopolitical data which can be used by nation states. Such information could be traded in the underground and sold to the highest bidder, which can be of course, anywhere.

Capitalism!

(Photo: Emsi Soft)

Did you receive an email this holiday season from a kind-hearted woman who just wanted to celebrate Christmas by sending random strangers pictures of herself in skin-bearing bikinis? Free noodz from an anonymous hottie seemed too good to be true! And indeed, it was.

Sophos' Naked Security reports that malware is currently circulating via screensavers of bikini shots landing in the inboxes of hapless Internet folks.

According to Naked Security, a malicious Trojan horse is embedded within an executable screensaver file sent by a woman who claims to have attached those bikini pics she promised you. If you open it expecting to see a sexy screensaver, all you'll get is a computer full of malware.

If a lady didn't actually promise you pics of herself in a bikini, probably don't open the email. Plus, if you're that starved for naked lady pics, might we suggest you explore the Internet outside of your work inbox?

The apocalypse has been cancelled. No rain date has been set.

Everyone and his brother is chattering away about the Mayan apocalypse, which supposedly happens tomorrow. If you’re just now learning the world might end, you might be tempted to Google around for more info. Just don't open any sketchy powerpoint presentations on the matter, Naked Security warns.

That's because there's one circulating with the SEO friendly title of "Will the world end in 2012?" and it's brimming with malware.

You open the document, enable macros and boom, nasties on your hard drive. So tomorrow the world will turn on, but your computer will be compromised.

Naked Security explains where this little Christmas present originated:

The presentation about the world ending was created by a preacher in the United States who appears to have nothing to do with this booby-trapped version. Don't go looking for this presentation though!

His legitimate WordPress blog has been compromised and is currently performing search engine manipulation duties for Viagra pushers, "off-shore" casinos, forex fraud and payday loans.

Spammers--or the planet Nibiru???

Now more hackable. (Photo: Monday Note)

Dockster is a recently discovered Mac-based malware program that functions as a keylogger, among other things. It's also a trojan, which means it can hide on a host computer quietly recording every keystroke before it contacts a remote server for further instructions. Dockster is considered "low risk," but it has been found embedded on gyalwarinpoche.com--a site dedicated to the Dalai Lama.

F-Secure confirmed the infection and reported that Tibetan sites appear to be frequent targets for similar exploits:

This is not the first time gyalwarinpoche.com has been compromised and it certainly isn't the first time Tibetan related NGOs have been targeted.

Researchers also say that the Mac malware found on this and other Tibetan sites are "very unlikely to be encountered 'in-the-wild' by day to day Mac users."

Don't rest easy assuming these sneaky programs are isolated, state-sponsored efforts targeting one prominent figure or one beleaguered nation like Tibet. As illustrated by this April report from Kaspersky Lab on the SabPub Mac trojan, cyber attackers are finding their way into Macs for a wide variety of reasons. Mac holdouts who have abstained from downloading antivirus software may have some thinking to do.