A cryptocurrency is a type of digital money that uses cryptography to secure transactions and typically runs on a blockchain, a decentralized network that records and verifies transfers without needing a central authority like a bank.
For those who don’t know crypto mining is used to gain crypto currency. When performing a crypto mining attack (also called cryptojacking), the attacker secretly uses your computers, servers or browsers to mine cryptocurrency without your permission, stealing processing power and electricity and often slowing systems down, designed to be stealthy so it can run unnoticed for as long as possible.
Crypto mining is looking to be the single biggest risk we face in 2018 as the latest cyber crime affects some of the largest internet platforms including YouTube.
As mentioned, unlike other forms of cyber crime such as those posed by ransomware, crypto mining is designed to be stealthy in its nature to prevent system owners from detecting mining activity. Comparatively to ransomware its extremely prevalent on a ratio of 1 ransomware attack per 100 occurrences of crypto mining attacks. The reasons behind this are that infected machines start generating money for the attackers on day 1 as appose to ransomware which may or may not result in a pay day for the attackers.
See the article for further information and contact us to talk about how we can help protect your organisation against the latest threats!
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If you want to learn how you can protect yourself from the most common cyber attacks, check out Cyber Essentials.
