Microsoft Discovered a Hidden Miner in the Image of Kobe Bryant

Hidden malicious software for cryptocurrency mining was detected in the desktop wallpaper with the image of the basketball player Kobe Bryant who died at the end of last week.

As Microsoft’s cyber threat investigation unit reports on Twitter, cybercriminals “taking advantage of the tragedy.”

“We found a malicious HTML file posing as a Kobe Bryant wallpaper that contains a coin mining script,” the company writes.

Image: @MsftSecIntel

The code itself mentions “CoinHive”, the common Monero hidden mining software that was stopped in March 2019.

Previously, attackers have already used similar tricks to spread hidden miners. So, in December, the image of the performer Taylor Swift was discovered, through which the MyKingz mining botnet was distributed, and in March 2018, the same fate befell the photo of actress Scarlett Johansson.

Author: Marko Vidrih

Featured image credit: Pixabay