In the days before as-a-service business models in the cloud were viable, vendors were entirely reliant on physical media being distributed to end users containing the entire program. Reg readers who are long of tooth and grey of hair might recall our coverage of the warez scene back in the 2000s, which saw various software pirates being arrested and handed prison terms. 'Pirated software is never the way to go, however tempting it may be, as the risks tend to always outweigh the benefits.' This rather impressive malware may even hide in plain sight as many cracked versions of software come with protection notifications from their antivirus warning their users of the risks. Jake Moore, a cybersecurity consultant at infosec biz ESET, told us: 'As illegal as cracked software is, it is still very much commonplace on both home and work devices which makes this even more worrisome. We presume that exfiltration of the Firefox profile directory was opportunistic rather than targeted and that attackers would go for any other browser installed on the device.' Pirates of the dodge-the-fee-an Botezatu, told The Register: 'The operators behind this attack take quite some time to analyse the environment they have compromised and decide what is worth stealing.
