Ready-made computer code that automates crypto-mining is easy to find with a Google search, along with tips on the vulnerabilities of devices. Martin Hron, a security researcher at Avast, says that besides the rise in interest in virtual currencies, there are two main reasons for the rise in attacks.įirst, crypto-jacking scripts require little skill to implement. For businesses, this results in slower performance and higher energy bills. In what they believe might be the biggest crypto-jacking attack so far, Checkpoint discovered in February that a hacker had been exploiting a vulnerability in a server that over several months generated over $3 million in Monero.Ĭrypto-jackers have also recently targeted organizations that use cloud-based services, in which a network of servers is used to process and store data, providing more computing power to companies who haven't invested in extra hardware.Ībusing this service, crypto-jackers use as much power as the cloud will allow them to, maximizing their gains. "Basically, everyone with a (computer processing unit) can be targeted by crypto-jacking," said Ismail Belkacim, a developer of an application that prevents websites from mining virtual currencies.Īs a result, some hackers target organizations with large computing power. In the majority of attacks, hackers infect as many devices as possible, a method experts calls "spray and pray." That is worth almost $150 million dollars and doesn't count mining that occurs through browsers. A report by cybersecurity company Palo Alto Networks estimates that over 5 percent of Monero was mined through crypto-jacking. Mursch says Monero is the most popular virtual currency among cyber-criminals. Hackers quickly began to use the service to infect vulnerable sites with miners, most notably YouTube and nearly 50,000 Wordpress websites, according to research conducted by Troy Mursch, a researcher on crypto-jacking. The first big case emerged in September and centered on Coinhive, a legitimate business that let website owners make money by allowing customers to mine virtual currency instead of relying on advertising revenue. It has only continued to increase, to 93 million in May, it says. The number of crypto-jacking cases soared from 146,704 worldwide in September to 22.4 million in December, according to anti-virus developer Avast. The price of bitcoin, the most widely known virtual currency, jumped six-fold from September to almost $20,000 in December before falling back down to under $10,000. Industry experts first noted crypto-jacking as a threat in 2017, when virtual currency prices were skyrocketing to record highs. For three months this year, removed ads from its sites in exchange for users allowing them to mine virtual currencies. Some websites, including, have tried to do it legitimately and been transparent about it. When the victim switches, the mining ends. The victim visits a site, which latches onto the victim's computer processing power to mine digital currencies as long as they are on the site. It can also be done through a web browser. Crypto-jacking is not done only by installing malicious software.
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