Kaspersky Lab: Hackers are moving from ransomware to cryptojacking

According to a report published by Kaspersky Lab, a global cybersecurity company, there has been a significant change from attacks related to ransomware (malicious software designed to block access to a computer system, until a certain amount of money is paid) to cryptojacking ( crypto mining malware). The report claims that cryptojacking has become a more profitable prospect for hackers and is the reason for the decrease in ransomware attacks.

In 2017, Ransomware such as WannaCry wreaked havoc worldwide after spreading to several organizations, including several hospitals of the National Health Service of the United Kingdom in England and Scotland. The ransomware targeted an exploit (software designed to take advantage of a flaw in a computer system) of Microsoft Windows, encrypted all user files on a computer and demanded Bitcoin payments as a ransom to unlock the files. However, the report referred to them as an "isolated wave, rather than a trend".

"The total number of users affected by ransomware decreased by almost 30%, from 2,581,026 in 2016-2017 to 1,811,937 in 2017-2018," the report said. There has been a significant decrease, of around 22.5%, of ransomware attacks on mobile devices.

The report also indicated that the number of users who found malicious miners increased almost 44.5% in the last year. Factors such as the simple monetization model of mining, the discretion of mining software and the ease of creation of these miners have contributed to making cryptojacking a more lucrative attack vector than ransomware.

Mining attacks based on mobile devices have experienced steady growth along with PC-based attacks, although computers provide more computational power for mining, the report said, "both percentages and absolute figures show us that Mobile mining is an emerging threat targeting developing countries. " In a statement to the Financial Times, Steve Grobman, CTO of McAfee, said: "With the increase in the value of cryptocurrencies, market forces are driving criminals to cryptojacking and cryptocurrency theft."

Countries such as India and China account for one third of the market share of smartphone devices. The report also analyzes browser-based mining, which is carried out by running a special script on the victim's website.

"The number of attacks directed against companies, with the aim of installing miners, raises doubts about whether mining could eventually follow in the footsteps of ransomware players, and if mining actors attract as much attention as ransomware did, life will be complicated. for them".

In a similar investigation, McAfee, an American cybersecurity firm, concluded that cryptojacking malware was on the rise. The report claimed that the number of crypto mining malware attacks increased by more than 600% in the first quarter of 2018 alone.