Mining Malware Developer Settles with Federal Trade Commission
A cryptocurrency malware developer has settled with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the New Jersey Attorney General's Office. Developer Ryan Ramminger and Equiliv Investments were named in the settlement in connection with the development and distribution of a mobile app called Prized that contained hidden mining software. Prized was initially marketed as a consumer rewards app. After security researchers discovered the app was designed to mine cryptocurrency in March, it was soon dropped from popular app venues like Google Play. According to the FTC, the malware contained in the....
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A press release from the Federal Trade Commission states that the developers of the Prized mobile app have decided to settle the charges that their 'rewards' app installed malware on the users' smartphones that drained the batteries and depleted the data plans. The New Jersey Attorney General also said that the app's main purpose was to actually load the consumers' mobile phones with a malicious software to mine cryptocurrency for the developer. The press release said that Equiliv Investments and Ryan Ramminger, the Ohio-based defendants have settled for $50,000, of which $44,800 will be....
Butterfly Labs has agreed to settle the Federal Trade Commission’s charges of making misleading claims about their products to their customers. In a lawsuit that has dragged on since September 2014, the Kansas-based Bitcoin company presold computer hardware that was optimized for mining Bitcoin, charging as much as $30,000 for the specialized hardware. According to the U.S. trade watchdog FTC, Butterfly Labs was taking orders for Bitcoin mining machines, but very few machines were actually shipped, as Butterfly Labs was building and using the hardware to mine bitcoin for itself. In the few....
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has announced that bitcoin mining hardware company Butterfly Labs and two of its operators have agreed to settle charges that pointed to the company deceiving customers. The FTC revealed today that bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer Butterfly Labs and two of its operators: part-owner and vice president of product development, Sonny Vleisides and general manager, Darla Drake have settled charges filed against the company. Under the terms of the settlement, Butterfly Labs must pay the FTC $38,615,161, according to the judgement ordered against the....
Cryptocurrency mining malware for PC platforms has been around for a while, but now it has gone mobile, specifically via the Android OS. A team of security researchers from Trend Micro has managed to identify two apps that can use your Android device to mine litecoin and dogecoin. The apps in question are called Songs and Prized, and both are available from the Google Play Store. Songs has between one and five million downloads so far, while Prized has 10,000 to 50,000 downloads. This is not the first case of mining malware targeting new and unusual platforms. Linux recently got what was....
Lookout, a mobile security startup based in San Francisco, has identified a new type of bitcoin mining malware that targets mobile devices. Dubbed 'BadLepricon', the malware represents a more sophisticated type of mining malware attack than previously seen. The malware was designed to be delivered via a wallpaper app. Lookout identified five separate apps that contained BadLepricon, and Google removed the apps soon after being contacted by the mobile security firm. The company announced the discovery in a 24th April blog post, citing the specifics of the malware. CoinDesk spoke with....