Kaspersky experts have discovered two new malicious campaigns coming through Skype trying to distribute malware.
The first campaign tries to trick users with tempting messages that arrive in Skype and urge them to click on unsafe links. The messages look like the following:
– Tell me what you think about this photo
– This is the funniest picture you've ever seen!
– Someone showed me this picture of you
– Do you like my hair?
– You should take a look at this picture
When users click on the links accompanying these messages, they are taken to a website designed to distribute malware, identified by Kaspersky as UDS:DangerousObject.Multi.Generic.
The URLs used in this attack have already received more than 170,000 clicks, and the number is growing by about 10,000 clicks per hour. Most of the victims are in Russia and Ukraine, but hits have been observed in China, Italy, Bulgaria, and Taiwan.
The second campaign is even more interesting. It also starts with a Skype message that tries to convince the recipient to click on a link.
In this case, the malware, Trojan.Win32.Jorik.IRCbot.xkt, is capable of performing many malicious functions, but the most important is its ability to turn the infected machine into a Bitcoin miner.
Bitcoin miners use a lot of system resources, so if your CPU is running at full speed for no reason, your device may be infected with it or similar malware.
Most victims are from Italy, followed by Russia, Poland, Costa Rica, Spain, Germany, and Ukraine. The URLs used in this attack receive around 2,000 clicks per hour.
Both attacks are still active.
