Spider-Man: No Way Home piracy hacks thousands of PCs into crypto miners


Since the beginning of 2020, cinemas have been suffering from a massive decrease in ticket sales. The recent release of Spider-Man: No Way Home has been the hero cinema needed, making over $1.5 billion at the box office.

Despite this, piracy for the latest Spider-Man movie has been rife, becoming one of the most pirated movies in years. However, pirates trying to watch the new Spidey film may find their computers infected by crypto hacks.

Spider-Man: No Way Home torrents are crypto hacks

Reported by cybersecurity company Reason Labs, torrents for the new Spider-Man movie are hiding a particularly nasty piece of malware. Spread across multiple downloads of CAM versions of the new movie — the only kind available at the moment — the virus will make your computer work for the hackers.

This is because the torrents hide a malware program called Monero. The program turns your PC into a cryptocurrency miner. This means that your hardware will constantly be working in the background and earning money for the hackers.

Additionally, this piece of malware creates exclusions on your PC that makes it undetectable by Windows Defender. The virus also creates a watchdog process, making sure your PC prioritises crypto mining instead of other programs.

The malware isn't used to leak any personal information from your computer. On the other hand, it will make your desktop sluggish to use and massively increase your electricity bill. As cool as Spider-Man is, it may be worth waiting for a Disney Plus release.

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An MCU issue?

Reason Labs explained that hackers are currently attempting to infuse their malware into new trends. With the massive popularity of Marvel Cinematic Universe movies and shows on piracy websites, the MCU has been hyper-targeted.

While Marvel TV shows are available on Disney Plus, they're still some of the most downloaded shows on these websites. As such, hackers are essentially being told which franchises to place their hacks in.

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