Apps with millions of Google Play downloads covertly mine cryptocurrency

Post by clef » Thu, Mar 27, 2014, 7:25 AM UTC

UweSchmidt wrote: post #21

devindotcom wrote: post #4

This is pretty hilarious. Given how small the load can be to automatically contribute hashes to a pool for ___coin, I expect more of these in the future, but smarter. Runs for 5 seconds per minute on ten million devices for six months? That's no joke with some of the hardware out there. It's this close to a victimless crime (that is, unless the victim gets their CPU/GPU fried, as has happened with these nets before).…

It's the disdain for the user. Take their data, use their CPUs, whatever. Users are dumb, they won't notice, and hey, the app's free anyway. Back in the day, the software on my "Personal Computer" was my friend. It was all wonderful things to have and to learn about. Looking at my smartphone that's right here on my table, it's shiny, but I've long felt a distinct lack of control over the thing. And now this: Hello -…

Post by TrainedMonkey » Thu, Mar 27, 2014, 7:33 AM UTC

herf wrote: post #10

These schemes mostly just convert electricity to cryptocurrency. The electricity is almost always more expensive than the value, but the app authors aren't paying the bill. If you're plugging in your 5W charger for less than half the day, the limit is maybe $2/year/user, assuming you can get away with it for a year...

Post by riffraff » Thu, Mar 27, 2014, 7:51 AM UTC

kawliga wrote: post #18

kawliga wrote: post #16

I wonder if one could create a pyramid scheme app out of this? An invite only one. 1st guy - 100% mining load & all profit. 2nd and 3rd guy split the mining load and 99.99% of the profit. and so on...

wait... forget invite only - anyone could download. Your rank would depend upon how early you became a member and how often you leave the app running. The mining load would increase/decrease depending upon how many users are running the app at the time. Also, place ads on the app.

Post by galaktor » Thu, Mar 27, 2014, 8:04 AM UTC

clef wrote: post #22

UweSchmidt wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's the disdain for the user. Take their data, use their CPUs, whatever. Users are dumb, they won't notice, and hey, the app's free anyway. Back in the day, the software on my "Personal Computer" was my friend. It was all wonderful things to have and to learn about. Looking at my smartphone that's right here on my table, it's shiny, but I've long felt a distinct lack of control over the thing. And now this: Hello -…

I Just use the factory apps and have nothing else installed, this way no one mines anything out of me.

Post by clef » Thu, Mar 27, 2014, 8:17 AM UTC

qq66 wrote: post #23

clef wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I Just use the factory apps and have nothing else installed, this way no one mines anything out of me.

Except Google mining all your data (if you use Android)