Over the past several years, cryptojacking has become a fairly common threat type, surging in popularity in 2017 and 2018. In February 2018, Malwarebytes Labs published that malicious cryptomining had become the most common detection type since September 2017. In October 2017, Fortune suggested that cryptojacking is the next major security threat. In the first quarter of 2018, we saw a 4,000 percent increase in detections of Android-based cryptojacking malware.
During this time, the cryptojackers continued to up their game, invading increasingly powerful hardware. One example is an incident where criminals cryptojacked the operational technology network of a European water utility’s control system, degrading the operators’ ability to manage the utility plant. In another instance from the same report, a group of Russian scientists allegedly used the supercomputer at their research and nuclear warhead facility to mine Bitcoin.
More recently, while other types of malware have increased in prevalence and made international headlines (ransomware in 2021, for instance), cryptojacking has become somewhat of a mainstay threat type. In our 2021 State of Malware Report, we noted that BitCoinMiner remained the top business threat for Windows computers, and for consumers, Mac computers in particular saw an increase in cryptocurrency stealers/miners.
While cryptojacking may not be making as many headlines as it did in 2017 and 2018, it remains a relatively low-risk way for threat actors to make money off of other people's resources, so it's important to protect your devices from this type of threat.
During this time, the cryptojackers continued to up their game, invading increasingly powerful hardware. One example is an incident where criminals cryptojacked the operational technology network of a European water utility’s control system, degrading the operators’ ability to manage the utility plant. In another instance from the same report, a group of Russian scientists allegedly used the supercomputer at their research and nuclear warhead facility to mine Bitcoin.
More recently, while other types of malware have increased in prevalence and made international headlines (ransomware in 2021, for instance), cryptojacking has become somewhat of a mainstay threat type. In our 2021 State of Malware Report, we noted that BitCoinMiner remained the top business threat for Windows computers, and for consumers, Mac computers in particular saw an increase in cryptocurrency stealers/miners.
While cryptojacking may not be making as many headlines as it did in 2017 and 2018, it remains a relatively low-risk way for threat actors to make money off of other people's resources, so it's important to protect your devices from this type of threat.