Crypto Theft: Cybercriminals Steal $400,000 Via Fake Tor Browser, Kaspersky Report Shows

The report identified Russia as the country with the most detections.

Users can become infected by downloading a Trojanized Tor Browser from a third-party resource.

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A report released on Monday by cybersecurity company Kaspersky indicates that cybercriminals have stolen over $400,000 from more than 15,000 people in 52 countries during 2023 through the use of Tor Browser malware. The malware, which has been around for over a decade and was originally employed by banking trojans to replace bank account numbers, works by swapping out a portion of the clipboard's content with the criminal's wallet address once it detects the presence of a wallet address.

The report highlighted that the targeted cryptocurrencies included Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin (BTC), Dogecoin (DOGE), and Monero (XMR).

According to the report, cryptocurrency owners and traders are currently the primary targets for this new breed of malware. Despite its apparent simplicity, the fake Tor Browser attack is hazardous. This is due to the fact that it creates irreversible money transfers and is hard to detect by a regular user. Regular malware requires a communication channel between the malware operator and the victim's system, which is not necessary for this malware.

Users can become infected by downloading a Trojanized Tor Browser from a third-party resource containing a password-protected RAR archive. The password is intended to prevent detection by security solutions. Once the file is dropped on the user's system, it registers itself in the auto-start of the system and is disguised with an icon of a popular application like uTorrent.

The report identified Russia as the country with the most detections, likely due to users downloading the infected Tor Browser, but the top 10 countries affected also included the United States, Germany, Uzbekistan, Belarus, China, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and France.

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