Thus, users visiting municipal government websites in the state of Andhra Pradesh, would inadvertently mine cryptocurrencies on behalf of the hackers who injected cryptomining software in the websites. The process is called cryptojacking, as the malicious scripts essentially hijack a user’s computer to mine cryptocurrencies.
According to security researchers that found the malware, hackers target government websites for mining cryptocurrency because those websites get high traffic and mostly people trust them.
When requested to comment of the discovery, Andhra Pradeshs IT secretary did not respond, though the state’s IT advisor to the chief minister, said “thanks for notifying us about the AP website hacking”, according to CoinDesk. However, despite acknowledging the cryptojacking malware, the websites continued to run the scripts as of September 16, CoinDesk cited the Economic Times.
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