Cybersecurity company Kaspersky: Hackers ransom YouTube bloggers to promote encrypted mining trojans

On March 12th, cybersecurity company Kaspersky discovered that hackers are threatening YouTube content creators with copyright complaints, forcing them to add the SilentCryptoMiner trojan in their video descriptions. This malware is based on XMRig and is used for mining cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum, Ethereum Classic, Monero, Ravencoin etc., and controls botnets through the Bitcoin blockchain. The main targets of these hackers are YouTubers who provide tutorials on installing Windows Packet Divert drivers. They first launch false copyright complaints against videos then contact the creators claiming to be developers of the driver and ask them to add malicious links. So far it's known that a YouTuber with 60 thousand followers has fallen victim leading over 40 thousand people to download infected files; Kaspersky estimates at least 2 thousand devices have been infected. Kaspersky security researcher Leonid Bezvershenko warns that hackers are exploiting trust between YouTubers and their audience; this type of threat may spread to platforms like Telegram. He advises users not to blindly follow instructions asking them to disable antivirus software and verify sources before downloading any file in order to prevent infection from crypto-mining trojans.