As reported by a local media, a police racket took place in China that led to the arrest of 15 people who had infected an impressive amount of computers at Internet cafés: over 9000 devices, resulting in the illegal mining of nearly $14 million in crypto.
The investigation had begun last year when the security office of Henan province had received a report that several local Internet cafés had been infected with an illegal crypto mining system.
As stated by the head of the department, Liu Hui, after several investigations at the relevant Internet cafés it was discovered that the malware had been developed by a company based in that district and that this also allowed remote control of the infected machines.
Tracing back to the company, it was discovered that it recommended its own illegal mining service to the managers of these Internet cafés.
In fact, once Pandora’s box was opened, it was discovered that the same café managers infected the machines in exchange for high rewards: in the last 2 years, the company would have paid almost 2000 managers to facilitate the installation of the malware.
It is not known which crypto it is, but it’s common knowledge that Monero is the preferred one for illegal mining activities.
