Cryptojacking Method Against Consumers Is ‘’Essentially Extinct’’ Report Says

Cryptojacking method or malicious crypto mining against consumers is ‘’essentially extinct’’ according to a report released by the MalwareBytes cybersecurity company. The company issued the report a couple of days ago and we are therefore reading more about it in our latest cryptocurrency news.

According to the report, when the CoinHive mining service shut down in March this year and the team declared that the project is economically inviable, the cryptojacking method used against consumers has decreased by a large percent. In the same time, the number of malicious attacks targeting crypto businesses increased compared to the last quarter.

The Cryptojacking method is using a computing device in order to mine cryptocurrencies without the owner knowing about it. The effects that come out of the malicious mining against consumers are a massive slowdown, more heat generation and eventually really short battery life. Also, the cryptocurrency which is among the preferred ones for such attacks is the privacy-oriented coin Monero (XMR). This coin has the ability to be mined on lower-tier hardware.

As previously reported in the altcoin news, last year a researcher claimed that the CoinHive crypto mining script was reportedly detected on more than 300 university and government websites across the world. Also, the cybersecurity firm Symantec found a spike in crypto mining malware that only targets bigger enterprises by using the cryptojacking method.

According to Bloomberg reports, the cryptojacking method is the biggest cyber threat worldwide. The research from Kaspersky Lab shows that malicious mining is a bigger threat than ransomware since it is the fastest growing threat in countries such as the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. The data also shows that ‘’crypto mining attacks have risen almost fourfold in the region from $3.5 million in 2017 to $13 million this year.  Aside from consumers, smartphone users are a common target as well and attacks such as these increased by 9.5% over the year.

Researchers believe that incidents by using the cryptojacking method are expected to increase further along with the higher demand for digital currencies. The attacks are more popular because they are less visible and are hard to be noticed rather than the ransomware attacks. It is currently the most used criminal method among cybercriminals.