A recent report published by internet security company, Kaspersky Labs, reveals that cases of computers becoming infected with ransomware are rapidly vanishing, and that malicious cryptocurrency mining, also known as ‘cryptojacking’, is beginning to take its place.

According to the report, the total number of Kaspersky users who encountered ransomware fell by almost 30 percent, from 2,581,026 in 2016-2017 to 1,811,937 in 2017-2018. Ransomware is a type of computer malware that has caused significant disruption in the world of cyber-security over the past few years. If a user’s device becomes infected by ransomware, the user will be unable to access anything within the device until a ransom is paid to the hacker. Typically these ransoms have been paid in the form of Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.

While such a sharp reduction in instances of ransomware is clearly welcomed news, the Kaspersky Labs report goes on to show that instances of crypto jacking have increased by almost 44.5 percent, from 1,899,236 in 2016-2017 to 2,735,611 in 2017-2018. Similar statistics were released this week by McAfee labs, which detected 2.9 million new samples of coin miner software among their users in the first quarter of 2018 alone. This is a 629 percent increase from the previous quarter.

Cryptojacking malware has become increasingly popular due to the booming crypto market. Devices infected with cryptojacking malware hijack extra computing power from a device and use it to mine cryptocurrency. The mining rewards generated from cryptojacking malware go directly to the hacker, and in some cases this entire process takes place totally unbeknownst to the owner of the infected device.

Its a form of hacking that has proven to be incredibly lucrative for hackers in the crypto age. In a report published earlier this month, Palo Alto Networks revealed that at least 5 percent of Monero in circulation (totaling $175 million in value), had been mined on computers unknowingly infected with malware mining software. The author of the report, Josh Grunzweig, stated:

“Defeating cryptocurrency miners being delivered via malware proves to be a difficult task, as many malware authors will limit the CPU utilization, or ensure that mining operations only take place during specific times of the day or when the user is inactive. Additionally, the malware itself is delivered via a large number of methods, requiring defenders to have an in-depth approach to security.”

Cryptojacking malware is elegant, covert, easy to contract, and spreading fast. It is estimated that 55 percent of businesses worldwide are currently infected. Indeed, even major companies like Youtube have encountered instances of cryptojacking malware in their company software.

In May of this year, a new cryptojacking malware that crashes PCs if a user tries to remove it had infected 500,000 computers in 3 days.

It still remains unclear what can be done to stop the rising epidemic of cryptojacking. One potential solution comes in the form of consensus algorithms that don’t rely upon Proof-of-Work (PoW) mining, thereby making cyptojacking malware obsolete. However, in the case of traditional PoW cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, cryptojacking may be an ever present threat.

The post Cryptojacking Overtakes Ransomware as King of Cryptocrime appeared first on UNHASHED.

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