QNAP, a Taiwanese company that specializes in network-attached storage (NAS) appliances, has released a security alert warning of a cryptocurrency mining malware targeting its devices.

“A bitcoin miner has been reported to target QNAP NAS. Once a NAS is infected, CPU usage becomes unusually high where a process named "[oom_reaper]" could occupy around 50% of the total CPU usage. This process mimics a kernel process but its PID is usually greater than 1000,” QNAP said without detailing how the devices were being compromised.

“We strongly recommend users to act immediately to protect their device,” the NAS maker urged.

QNAP did not share additional details, saying that it currently is investigating the infections. The company advised customers to take preemptive measures to prevent the attacks, such as updating their devices’ operating systems (QTS or QuTS) and all QNAP add-on apps. The company also recommended users to update the Malware Remover tool and change all their NAS account passwords.

Users suspecting their NAS devise has been infected with the bitcoin miner are advised to reboot the device, which should remove the malware.