Hidden cryptocurrency miner Digmine is distributed by hackers via Facebook Messenger

The Japanese company Trend Micro, which develops cybersecurity software, posted a message on its TrendLabs information blog about hackers distributing a bot for hidden mining of Monero.

Trend Micro experts on their TrendLabs blog announced the discovery of a new crypto-currency bot, which was first launched in South Korea and was called Digmine. Subsequently, the bot began to spread to other regions, such as Vietnam, Azerbaijan, Ukraine, the Philippines, Thailand and Venezuela. Considering the distribution method, the Digmine bot (using Monero) can reach more countries in a short time.

Digmine is encoded and distributed under the guise of a video file, which is actually an execution script. If a user's Facebook Messenger account is set to auto-login, then Digmine sends a link to the bot file to the account's friends.  Digmine tries to reach as many machines as possible and, as a result, increase criminal income through hidden Monero mining.

Facebook Messenger supports different platforms, but Digmine only affects the version of the Chrome browser. If the file is opened through another web browser (for example, in a mobile application), the malware will not work.

For now, abuse of the Facebook Messenger network is blocked, but Trend Micro advises to monitor the security of your social media accounts and be careful when receiving messages from third parties.

According to blog.trendmicro.com