STOCKHOLM, Sweden – Cryptojacking attacks increased to an alarming growth of 10,000 percent during the last quarter of 2017. It outnumbered the growth rate for the same year and surpassed the value of Bitcoin managed for the whole year. Stockholm is known as the second largest fintech hub, a fact that investors in blockchain cannot disregard.
Cybersecurity threats are catching up the same time cryptocurrency is progressing rapidly. The noticeable development has fueled cryptojacking (short term for cryptocurrency hijacking) and made it profitable. No one can deny the fact that this is a growing worldwide concern. The birth of this idea has toned down ransomware, which is also a proof that burglars are adapting quickly.
Cryptojackers, the person responsible behind cryptojacking, don’t take private information. Instead, they aim at computer processing power through malware, and then they will do the mining remotely. This can be achieved by stealthily taking control of the background processes of browsers and apps.
This process rose by 8,500 percent last 2017, and a Symantec report advises that the habit has become more predominant due to a low-barrier entry that only requires a few codes to operate. Low reporting rates of these types of crimes are luring cybercriminals.
A process called in-browser hijacking is now the center of attention of media. The process includes a website that is adding code to its page which attacks a visitor’s web browser to carry out calculations required to mine. This is something not to be downplayed as it can drive CPUs to their edge.
The Swedish Police Force website is the recent victim of this hijack, and the script mined Monero from the visitor’s computer. Although the targeted audience was enormous, the profit from this campaign amounting to $24 is not considered a satisfactory result. Ola Rehnberg, Symantec security expert, has commented that it was a bold move in a short amount of term.
According to Lotem Finkelstein, since this process is everywhere (web, server, computer, and phone), it is considered more serious than ransomware. Based on the wave of incidents, experts have a reason to believe that it is the next big thing.