[Discuss] Any miners?

[Richard Pieri]

On 6/16/2017 6:32 PM, John Abreau wrote:
> I wonder if bitcoin mining is a significant factor in malware. Build
> a massive botnet, and then use the zombie machines as a massively
> parallel system for bitcoin mining. The victims pay for the
> electricity and other costs, and the bad guy reaps the rewards.

Not really. It costs substantially more to rent a botnet (based on some
of the figures I've seen) then you could mine from the kinds of
computers most botnet victims have. On the flip side, if you happen to
own such a botnet then you'd make more money renting it out or by
pushing out ransomware and hoping victims pay up than you ever could by
mining.

-- 
Rich P.