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Bitcoin Wallet Electrum Malware
A modification of the Electrum Bitcoin Wallet has been sending a message to users connected to affected servers requiring users to do a security update in order to make a transaction. This message leads users to a download page of software requiring a two-step verification process that if installed, will infect your wallet with the malware and drain it of funds.
Currently, there is no way to recover these losses.
Electrum has advised that anything asking for your authentication numbers should raise a red flag and to avoid these problems altogether, to only download software from legitimate sources like their official website:
Or on Github at:
https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum
Developers from Electrum Bitcoin Wallet on the malware:
“We did not publicly disclose this until now, as around the time of the 3.3.2 release, the attacker stopped; however they now started the attack again.”
The software has been modified by Electrum but this is a temporary fix, at best, “This is not a true fix, but the more proper fix of using error codes would entail upgrading the whole federated server ecosystem out there….”
Currently, this attack is ongoing. If you have installed this by mistake, it is unknown what other problems may arise from this. It is advised that you assume your tech is compromised or backdoored. Please act accordingly to protect yourself and your life.
It’s important to remember that Electrum’s wallet is far from the only to suffer an attack of this nature. McAfee released an anti-virus report in December stating that malware attacks on crypto-mining alone have increased over 4,000% just in 2018. The news on crypto worldwide shows the same upward trend on hacks of all kinds so remain vigilant.
Further help and information can be found on Freenode at #electrum or #bitcoin and on GitHub under issue #4968
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