Some Marvel fans who downloaded the Spider-Man: No Way Home torrent instead received Bitcoin mining malware, which might cause significant damage to their computers. So, what is this Monero miner capable of? How does it function? And how can you determine if you’ve been a victim of malware if you’ve torrented Spider-Man: No Way Home?
What Is Spider-Man No Way Home Torrent Miners Monero Cryptocurrency?
There are numerous methods for sharing files on the internet, but torrenting is one of the most popular and efficient methods for downloading and uploading big volumes of data. Put, torrenting is file sharing over a decentralized network.
Contrary to popular opinion, torrenting is not always prohibited. On the other hand, most popular torrent sites host copyrighted items likeoks, movies, and video games.
Because Spider-Man: No Way Home is a Marvel fan favorite, people worldwide are looking for methods to watch it for free online. As a result, some people have turned to torrents.
According to the American cybersecurity firm ReasonLabs, cybercriminals have seized on this. They are deploying what appears to be a torrent file of the film—but the file contains a Monero miner.
Monero is estimated to be the world’s third most popular cryptocurrency, trailing only Bitcoin and Ethereum. Monero, like most cryptocurrencies, is mined, which means it is created by using computers to solve cryptographic equations.
So, what happens if you unintentionally download a cryptocurrency miner?
Your CPU and GPU start to be used as resources to mine for digital money. This can cause your PC to slow down and cause various issues, including severe hardware damage.
How Spider-Man: No Way Home Monero Miner Works
ReasonLabs reports that the amazing Spider-Man: No Way Home torrent file is named “spiderman_net_putidomoi.torrent.exe.” In Russian, this is “spiderman_no_wayhome.torrent.exe.”
This shows that the file was most likely downloaded from Russian torrent sites, distributed, and is now being used on other major websites.
The miner adds exclusions to Windows Defender and is not yet recognized as malware by VirusTotal. Unfortunately, most anti-malware software on an infected device would likely not identify it.
On hardware, a Monero cryptocurrency icon can be visible.
The fact that this is an executable rather than a video file should be enough of a red flag, but it’s easy to understand how a victim may execute the file, allowing malicious code to be injected and the Monero mining process to commence.
Monero, known for its privacy features, has been used by criminals of all colors. It’s common in dark web marketplaces and other illegal operations, so it’s no surprise that cybercriminals keep an eye on pop culture trends and attach Monero miners to movie torrents.
How to Tell if Your CPU Is Being Used to Mine Monero
How can you know whether your device has been infected with crypto-jacking malware and is being used to mine Monero or another digital currency?
For starters, if your computer is being used to mine cryptocurrency, it will most certainly be substantially slower and perform noticeably worse.
To be sure: Use the Task Manager to see if anything needs to be corrected. Right-click the taskbar, select Task Manager, or press Ctrl + Shift + Esc to open it. Scan the Processes, Performance, and App history tabs of Task Manager for unusual activity.
Inspect network consumption on desktop programs by going to Settings > Network & Internet> Data usage and then clicking on View usage per app.
To protect yourself and your computer against cryptojacking and other forms of cybercrime, it goes without saying that you should consider investing in reputable anti-malware software.
No Way Home Torrent: Fake Spider-Man APK Download for Android
However, your Android devices are just as open to assault as your Windows computer is to cryptojackers like the one contained in this popular Spider-Man: No Way Home torrent.
Android crypto-malware is often disguised in APK (Android Package Kit or Android Application Package) files written in the Java and Kotlin programming languages and used by the Android system to install programs.
Consider someone searching for a Spider-Man: No Way Home torrent on their phone. Coming across what appears to be a legal video file. Downloading it. Installing the APK.
In this situation, the Spider-Man APK download for Android would install hazardous malware on the victim’s device. In addition, this program would mine Monero using their phone’s CPU, slowing down the device and cause it to crash.
How to Remove the Spider-Man APK Download From Your Android Phone
Suppose your phone is infected with a Monero crypto miner. In that case, you may notice that it becomes unusually hot, the battery drains faster, and apps take significantly longer to open and freeze.
How would you go about removing this malicious application? Unfortunately, simply uninstalling the Spider-Man APK from the No Way Home torrent will not suffice.
You must enter safe mode on your phone to start.
To do so, press and hold your Android phone’s power button. Press and hold the Restart or Power off button when the power menu appears. Following that, you will see the safe mode prompt; touch OK, and the phone will reboot into safe mode.
This varies with every phone, although the process is fairly consistent across all Android smartphones.
Once in safe mode, try removing, uninstalling, or disabling any suspicious apps on your phone and deleting the APK in its download location.
When you restart your phone in normal mode, download and use a free antivirus app to scan your device. If manually removing the malware did not work, this might assist. If everything else fails, study the manufacturer’s manual or contact someone more informed.
Steer Clear of Pirated Content and Stay Safe
It does not support the use of torrents to obtain illicit content. This could not only get you in significant legal trouble, but it could also damage your device.
Make sure you play a video game or view Spider-Man: No Way Home in a lawful manner. If you want to torrent content, stick to legal sites—there are many of them.
