BitCoin Virus spreading around ATS?. Be careful with political talking points.

This is a message warning all ATS members who might have certain political leanings. You will get attacked with computer viruses!!!!! This is probably the last straw and may cause me to leave the site altogether...

So I have been arguing with some people over at the political forums all day and this bitcoin virus. suddenly attacks my computer. It's called coinminer. I did not and do not want to download bitcoins! I have nothing at all running but spotify and Google Chrome, so because of my political alignments it doesn't surprise me that certain people will get pissed off by them. Would that entice them to send a virus to my IP address?

Luckily I am quite computer savvy as I work in the industry so I was able to get rid of it rather easily. But, is this what politics has come to? Infecting people's computers because you disagree with them politically! I researched this virus more and it does spread through links and forums.

Has this happened to anybody before??

I am going to admit ignorance here. What the hell is a bitcoin?

it's a peer to peer file sharing currency: bitcoin.org...

Doesn't surprise you does it. Fits perfectly with their agenda.

More about the virus I got from this site:

Program:Win32/CoinMiner is a free mining client for Windows that generates new digital coins in the BitCoin decentralized economy by performing highly complex computations. It may be running in a computer without the user's consent if dropped by other malware, such as Trojan:Win32/Comine.A. To generate these coins, Program:Win32/CoinMiner uses the system's CPU resources intensively.

www.microsoft.com...

Please......n00bs

reply to post by jjf3rd77


Weird, sounds like something the Romney folks would do. J/k, sorry to hear this... that would be stupid if it was politically motivated (which I highly doubt).. Shoulda got some screen shots! I haven't heard of this happening on ATS before..

so, let me get this straight, you are accusing ATS of installing a bitcoin mining virus on your computer because of your political leanings?

we're only mining bitcoins because our monopoly money counterfeiting and payday money laundering businesses are taking a hit due to the popularity of thedigital versions of the games.

Originally posted by Wookiep
reply to post by jjf3rd77

 

Weird, sounds like something the Romney folks would do.

J/k, sorry to hear this... that would be stupid if it was politically motivated (which I highly doubt).. Shoulda got some screen shots! I haven't heard of this happening on ATS before..

I would have but I slowly deleted the thing as it ate up my entire CPU so taking a picture was out of the question.

Originally posted by Crakeur
so, let me get this straight, you are accusing ATS of installing a bitcoin mining virus on your computer because of your political leanings?

we're only mining bitcoins because our monopoly money counterfeiting and payday money laundering businesses are taking a hit due to the popularity of thedigital versions of the games.

NO! Not at all. I'm accusing people of a political nature that would have the audacity to do something like this!

How, exactly, have you associated BitCoin being on your computer with posting in political forums on ATS?

Do you have any evidence to show a connection?

Damned another virus related to bitcoin?

I had such high hope for a decentralized, virtual currency...

Send a virus directly to your IP?

Computer savvy???

Suggestion for all and OP:

Start your computer security education at [color=gold]GRC

Steve Gibson is nearly the same as Peter Norton but hasn't sold out. AND he has a perfect nerd sense of humor.

That's where to start...

No, one can not send a virus directly into your computer... IP.

At least not on the fly... AND unless you were just careless enough to install the BitCoin.

BitCoin isn't a virus in most peoples books... Just because some AV claims it's a virus doesn't make

simply 'unwanted' software such.

Good job removing it. Thanks for the heads up...

Suggestion: Make a shortcut to 'services.msc /a' then memorize the services that you want to have running.

Nuke the irrelevance. Find Viper's (XP, Vista, etc...) Services webpage and follow some of his suggestions.

He is a treasure chest of quick reference!

Other references:
TaskInfo 2005
NirSoft (mget *.*)
SysInternals (but they sold out to MS = )
Mike Lin
HexWorkshop bpsoft.com for disk editing
RStudio for file recovery

reply to post by jjf3rd77


ahh, so it isn't ATS but, by speaking your mind on ATS, someone else is infiltrating your computer and putting bitcoin mining viruses on your software?

perhaps you are the only person to have received this virus and, perhaps, it isn't a result of your political leanings.

did you get a telegram or an email saying "we gave you a bitcoin mining virus for being a supporter of ....(whomever you support)"

because, if you didn't, how can you know where it came from and why you got it.

maybe it was downloaded via a file sharing site.

certainly didn't come from us and, since this is the first, and I'm assuming, the last time we will hear that someone received this virus as a result of posting their political beliefs on ATS, it would be a rather big leap to assume that you received it as a result of your activity here.

those kinds of accusations are rather bold and outlandish, don't you think?

Can't viruses be on your computer for awhile before you notice them interferring with your computer? IDK much about computers but someone doing that for political reasons seems a bit extreme to me.

Originally posted by jenlovesturtles
Can't viruses be on your computer for awhile before you notice them interferring with your computer? IDK much about computers but someone doing that for political reasons seems a bit extreme to me.

Yes it is a bit extreme isn't? But it wouldn't surprise me at all actually considering how I have been treated on this website the past few weeks. Now, about the virus and how I got it. Well I was listening to music on spotify and typing on the forums on this website this computer I am on now is days old and I have only been using this website for most of that time... It simply couldn't have come from anywhere else.

Originally posted by DrMattMaddix
Send a virus directly to your IP?

Yes you can send a virus that way through a hidden links and various other ways... I have seen it and done it!

Originally posted by Crakeur
certainly didn't come from us

Are you sure? Have to be honest. Everytime I come here and scroll through hundreds of threads I get a pain in my mouse finger. Admit it! You uploaded a virus to my finger!

DoS Flood from IRC bots(net) is more common if someone wanted you gone.

... I mean, to go directly at your IP that is...

Then you wouldn't be here to post though... There are some skilled hax0rz out there.

Not many that will want to blow your doors off for political disagreements though.

reply to post by jjf3rd77

That's not very conclusive, and absent substantial evidence, appears to rely on the idea that correlation proves causation.

As an example of why that's problematic, if the phone rings while I post to ATS, I could assume posting to ATS causes the phone to ring.

Is there any evidence you can offer, other than assumptions, that would show a connection between ATS and CoinMiner?

Originally posted by jjf3rd77
Yes you can send a virus that way through a hidden links and various other ways... I have seen it and done it!

Hold on, here. Are you saying you've deliberately planted viruses on others' computers?

Originally posted by Majic
How, exactly, have you associated BitCoin being on your computer with posting in political forums on ATS?

Do you have any evidence to show a connection?

The virus itself is connected to that stupid bitcoin program...IDK why someone would bomb me with it. That's why I am asking the question here, if it has happened before, or something similar. It's actually a simple virus that hijacks the CPU and makes it really really slow. Until the computer is not usable.