Imagine this: you are a popular YouTuber, you have tens of thousands of subscribers, and one day you receive a notice of copyright infringement. Someone claims that your content is illegal, and your channel may be deleted. But then "kind" people write to you and offer you a way out: post a link to a "useful tool" in the description of your videos. It would seem that there is such a thing? However, in reality, you are being forced to distribute malware for hidden mining of cryptocurrencies.
Kaspersky has discovered that hackers are using YouTube's copyright protection system in their blackmail schemes. They require victims to post links to the SilentCryptoMiner Trojan, a program that secretly mines cryptocurrencies (ETH, XMR, RVN, and others) on other people's devices. Under the guise of circumventing restrictions, this program infects viewers' computers and uses their resources for the benefit of intruders.
The situation gets even worse when the victims refuse to comply with the demands. Hackers then threaten to block the channels by filing false copyright complaints. As a result, some popular bloggers actually succumb to blackmail for fear of losing their platforms.
Over the past six months, Kaspersky has recorded more than 2.4 million attacks related to the manipulation of network traffic through infected Windows drivers. And recently, another threat was revealed – the SparkCat Trojan, which steals user data directly from their smartphones. This shows how resourceful cybercriminals are and how important it is to be careful online.
Therefore, the main question is: how to protect yourself from such attacks? Is it worth trusting even famous bloggers if they advertise programs that you haven't heard of before?