Bitcoin

An online security firm F-Secure revealed that botnets of compromised machines are now used by cyber criminals to issue units of Bitcoin virtual currency.

Perpetrators used the ideas in distributed computing practiced by the SETI project. Cyber criminals programmed their botnets of zombie machines to farm Bitcoins.

"The bots are created with a generator," writes Mikko H Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure. "Generator sets a specific Twitter account to be the one which can be used to control the mining botnet."

A user of Bitcoin open-source virtual currency project claimed that his 25,000 Bitcoins, technically valued at close to $500,000, had mysteriously been transferred to an unknown user's account. Owners of the project cannot verify or disclaim these allegations.

Allinvain speculated the thieves made off with the windfall after using malware to compromise his Windows-based computer.

"I just woke up to see a very large chunk of my bitcoin balance gone," the user wrote. "I feel like killing myself now."