Hackers came up with a new way to get the hidden cryptocurrency Monero, creating the WinstarNssmMiner miner. The virus was detected by 360 Total Security specialists .

The main principle of the miner’s functioning is to block the anti-virus system that users install on their computers. The virus transfers a special code to svchost.exe., which gives hackers the opportunity to receive cryptocurrency and monitor the functioning of the antivirus at the same time.

The malicious minor crashes the user system by introducing the attribute and exchanging it for CriticalProcess.

WinstarNssmMiner has one more additional function: it scans an infected computer that is searching for antivirus software. It is currently known that the virus can not bypass Kaspersky Lab and Avast antiviruses. 360 Total Security specialists note that if a powerful anti-virus system is installed on a PC, then the malicious minor tries to slow down the operation of the operating system in every way possible while stealing processing power.

500 thousand attacks have been recorded by the time of writing, which brought the hackers about $26.5k in Monero.