The entire world’s eyes are on Bitcoin right now since the cryptocurrency’s valuation touched an all-time high. The world’s oldest cryptocurrency is currently being valued at close to USD 40,000, a valuation that is almost a quadruple rise in just a year. Analysts have predicted that the price of Bitcoin could exceed USD 50,000 in the long term, which could make the valuation of the cryptocurrency comparable to gold.
Bitcoin is one of the world’s most popular cryptocurrency and a rising trend among millennials. The anonymity that cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin offers are its biggest calling card. As a virtual currency that uses cryptography for security, it offers a fast, secure and most importantly, anonymous way of making payments. The volatility of Bitcoin continues to remain a key drawback, but it’s clear that cryptocurrency is here to stay.
At the same time, cryptocurrency has led to a new avenue for cybercriminals to profit. Seqrite’s Annual Threat Report 2021 noted that the number of cryptojacking attacks numbered close to 2.5 million in 2020. It is also a key trend that has been observed in Windows Security. Here are some considerable cryptojacking malware that was detected last year:
- Kings Miner
The Kings Miner malware was relentless against under-patched servers last year, seeing a peak in March 2020. It attacked Windows-based servers hosting various services and worked by establishing a beachhead, removing competing malware families and then securing the backdoor it broke in from.
- Blue Mockingbird
The Blue Mockingbird threat group launched a crypto mining campaign against millions of public-facing servers in India. The vulnerabilities in these servers were exploited to run multi-component malware that delivered cryptocurrency malware
- Lemon Duck Miner
Lemon Duck is a cryptocurrency malware that was first identified in 2019 but showed increased activity in 2020. Written in Python, using a combination of code from open-source projects, the Lemon Duck Miner infect spreads rapidly across the network to convert the organization’s resources into cryptocurrency mining.
Effects of crypto mining malware
Cryptomining attacks are particularly dangerous as their main aim is to operate silently within the infected target. These types of malware are often hidden in suspicious links which when clicked on by users, get downloaded onto the host computer and spread quickly. Entire enterprise networks may be taken over by crypto mining malware without the organization being aware of it.
Unlike ransomware, mining attacks seek to use the enterprise’s computational power to mine cryptocurrency. Mining cryptocurrency is extremely resource-intensive, which means the host systems start running slowly, crashes often, and can lead to major productivity issues in the long run.
To guard against the volatile miner malware landscape, enterprises need to ensure all their endpoints are secure. Seqrite Endpoint Security (EPS) offers cutting-edge protection to enterprise networks to ensure cryptojacking attacks are foiled. Through Web Filtering and Browsing Protection features, security administrators can ensure that their employees do not have access to sketchy websites that lowers the possibility of clicking on malicious links and unsuspectingly downloading malware.
