Crypto malware creators allegedly infected their own PCs

The US has charged 16 alleged creators of a malware-as-a-service bot that is capable of stealing crypto wallet credentials and has been used by Russian cybercriminals to cause $50 million worth of damage.

A 2022 Grand Jury indictment, unsealed yesterday, details how DanaBot admins allegedly leased the bot to criminals for thousands of dollars. If a computer became infected with its malware, it could be used to track keystrokes, siphon crypto wallet data, and record computer sessions.

DanaBot reportedly infected over 300,000 computers across the globe. However, the DanaBot defendants also infected their own PCs with their malware both deliberately and accidentally.

“The inadvertent infections often resulted in sensitive and compromising data being stolen from the actor’s computer by the malware and stored on the DanaBot servers, including data that helped identify members of the DanaBot organization,” the complaint reads.