E book piracy is on the rise, costing US publishers round $300 million yearly in misplaced income. Most customers obtain content material by way of hyperlinks, the place the file format is compressed and both in a ZIP or RAR file. This consists of books which can be hosted on file-sharing web sites or BitTorrent. A brand new menace ought to give folks pause if they’re downloading and studying on Home windows computer systems. The malware often called ViperSoftX has been noticed in lots of ebooks.
ViperSoftX is a classy menace. It not solely gathers system data and scans for cryptocurrency wallets, but additionally captures clipboard contents and downloads extra payloads based mostly on distant server responses. Its self-deletion mechanisms make detection a problem, and it will probably create Powershell instructions whereas evading detection mechanisms which may in any other case flag standalone PowerShell exercise.
This malware was initially detected in 2022, however in 2024, the variety of contaminated ebooks elevated exponentially. The contaminated books are hosted on all vital Torrent web sites, such because the Pirate Bay, and huge file-sharing websites, reminiscent of Mobilism. A lot of the Mobilism information are hosted on third-party file-sharing websites by way of direct hyperlinks.
I’d assume twice earlier than downloading any compressed book; that is the place malware is hiding. Nonetheless, the overwhelming majority of books are compressed as a result of every ebook is just not solely in an EPUB file but additionally a number of others, reminiscent of MOBI, PRC, and PDF. Issues get even dicier should you obtain a sequence of books, compilation or dozens of books from the New York Instances Bestseller Lists. To make sure that you’re not working Malware in your pc, steer clear of the file archive with a .exe in it.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the previous fifteen years. Newspapers and web sites such because the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Publish and the New York Instances have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
