News

Kaspersky Lab: cryptojacking cases risen 400 percent in 2018

Monday 17 December 2018 11:24 CET | News

Russia-based cyber-security company Kaspersky Lab has released data that cryptojacking cases have risen 400% in 2018, representing 13 million incidents.

Cryptojacking is a term used to describe malicious activity regarding cryptocurrency mining. More precisely, cryptojackers hijack the computers of crypto users and divert the funds to their own wallets. As a result, the attacks in the Middle East and Africa have risen fourfold on 2017.

Also, the fraudsters are using malware scripts to access people’s computers to mine cryptocurrencies. The malware runs quietly on a user’s PC, without the person knowing it is actually happening. After a while, the script can play havoc on a PC’s CPU power making the system run slowly, and sometimes even damaging the computer and overloading the processor.

Monero (XMR) is one of the main digital currencies that is currently being targeted and jacked by crypto-criminals. Moreover, Kaspersky Lab suggested that cybercriminals were moving from ransomware to cryptojacking, which was one of reasons why ransomware attacks had drastically dropped. However, as the value of cryptocurrencies had risen at the end of 2017, cybercriminals began focusing more on cryptojacking and crypto-related crime.


Free Headlines in your E-mail

Every day we send out a free e-mail with the most important headlines of the last 24 hours.

Subscribe now

Keywords: Kaspersky Lab, Cryptojacking, cryptocurrency, fraud, funds, wallets, mining, digital currencies, ransomware, Russia
Categories:
Companies:
Countries: World





Industry Events