Russia Today: A computer security instructor says he’s discovered that hackers have been able to infiltrate standard security cameras and then use that hardware to mine for bitcoin, the anonymous digital cryptocurrency.
Johannes Ullrich, a teacher at the computer security SANS Technology Institute, announced last Friday that he found malicious software on Hikvision digital video recorders (DVRs), which are used to record video from surveillance cameras. The virus seems to spread from device to device onto each machine it connects with on the network in question. Along with replicating, though, it also uses the closed-circuit television operators to mine for bitcoin, sending those profits back to the virus’ creator.