A Hacker Enslaved Computers To Mine More Than $600,000 In Dogecoin

Yuya Tamai/flickr

A German hacker turned data storage systems into "digital slaves" that mined more than $600,000 in Dogecoin, according to Dell security experts.

Computerworld's Gregg Keizer reports the hacker targeted systems from Taiwan-based Synology, installing software that over a series of months netted him hundreds of thousands of dollars' worth of the digital currency.

"This wasn't unique, we've seen other malware install [cryptocurrency] miners, but we haven't seen anything this big before," Pat Litke, a researcher at Dell SecureWorks' Counter Threat Unit (CTU) told Keizer. "That was mostly due to the infection vector. He could just walk in the door."

Dogecoin prices have plummeted nearly 80% to $0.0004 from $0.002 in February.

Click here to read the full story »