Good News: Crypto Mining Attacks Decline Across Africa – IT News Africa
In Q2 2022, Kaspersky solutions detected 40,788 new modifications of miners. According to data from Kaspersky Security Network, in the African region, the number of home users affected by cryptominers in Q2 of 2022 decreased slightly compared to the previous quarter.
However, the possibility of an increase in cryptomining attacks remains and may be directly correlated to cryptocurrency exchange rates.
What is Crypto-Mining?
Cryptomining is a process where users who mine cryptocurrency use computers, data, codes and calculations to validate cryptocurrency transactions and earn cryptocurrency as compensation for their work.
Cryptomining is very resource-intensive and therefore expensive to do, which is why cybercriminals seek access to other people’s machines to mine them.
Attackers can use compromised devices to generate cryptocurrency without the device owners’ knowledge. They can steal resources, for example, by sending endpoint users a legitimate email encouraging them to click on a link that runs code that places a cryptomining script or program on the victim’s computer.
Another method is to inject a script into a site or an ad that is delivered to multiple sites. When the victims visit the website or the infected ad appears in their browsers, the script is executed automatically. No code is stored on the victims’ computers.
Notable attacks
In 2019, eight separate apps that secretly mined cryptocurrency with the resources of whoever downloaded them were removed from the Microsoft Store. In 2018, cryptojacking code was discovered on the Los Angeles Times’ Homicide Report page. Also in 2018, the CoinHive miner was found to be running YouTube ads through Google’s DoubleClick platform.
In the African regions, there was a downward trend in cryptomining attacks, but in South Africa the dynamics were multidirectional. Attempts by attackers to run cryptominers on home users’ machines decreased by 11% in Q2 2022 compared to Q1, yet the number of home computers affected by cryptomining software increased by 2% over the same time period.
In Nigeria, the number of attempts to run cryptominers on home computers fell by 16% in Q2 2022 compared to Q1, and the number of computers affected by cryptominers decreased by 10%. In Kenya, there was a milder decline: 3% for attempts to run cryptominers on home machines and 6% for the affected computers.
“Previously, cryptomining attacks were primarily an endpoint problem, targeting desktops and laptops, sometimes – Android smartphones. Today, cryptojacking is expanding to include servers, networks and even IoT devices. Servers typically have higher power than ordinary PCs and provides greater mining capacity,” comments David Emm, chief security researcher at Kaspersky.
“We see different levels of mining activity in different regions – this is due to different levels of cryptocurrency adoption in countries, but also due to the fluctuations in cryptocurrency rates. As crypto rises in value, the activity of attackers using miners increases.”
By Staff Writer.
