Cybersecurity Report: Cryptojacking Remains an Acute Threat in 2018
April 14, 2018
Seid Yassin (557 articles)
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Cybersecurity Report: Cryptojacking Remains an Acute Threat in 2018

Cybercrime ran rampant last year, and the cryptocurrency market was no exception, as evidenced by hacks involving bitcoin ransoms and the pervasive use of cryptojacking. Cryptojacking involves using someone’s CPUs to secretly mine cryptocurrency without that person’s permission. And according to a report by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) entitled The Cyber Threat to UK Business, “cryptojacking will likely become a regular source of revenue for website owners.”

The price for a cyberattack is high, both reputationally and financially. And while corporations are ramping up their cybersecurity defenses, the threat of a security breach has not abated. If anything it’s intensified with the rise of cloud technology where sensitive data is stored and also cryptocurrency mining, where cybercriminals in 2017 rode the wave of the rise in the cryptocurrency prices.

The report reveals that the perpetrators of cryptojacking are two-pronged, stemming both from hackers and website owners who “used the processing power of visitors’ CPUs to mine cryptocurrency for their own financial gain.” For example, earlier this year a US business decided it was okay to user its visitors’ CPUs to mine Monero if that visitor used an ad-blocker. The website, however, informed its visitors of the plan in order to “recoup lost ad revenue.”

Cryptojacking remains a security threat as long as the interest surrounding cryptocurrencies remains “strong,” the report suggests.

Source | ccn