Redlock, a security group, issued a report in which at least two companies were victims of a hack that affected their Amazon Web Services platforms. What happened was that a group of hackers wanted to use the platforms to be able to mine bitcoins.
The hackers came to have access to the servers of Amazon Cloud, when they discovered that the companies did not have those panels protected with passwords. No type of espionage or access to pertinent information, or data theft, was carried out. The incident was limited to using processors of companies to mine cryptocurrencies.
Aviva and Gemalto were the affected companies, both are multinationals valued in millions of dollars. Performing mining activities is something that not everyone can do, there are many factors that affect and must be taken into account. The first thing is to have a team that can carry out the activity and the second is to be able to pay the bills for the electric services that these computers carry.
It is for this reason that most of the common users, go to the extensions of navigators or inserting codes in web sites. Obviously what they seek is to reach large companies because they are the ones that have a high amount of CPU's working and guarantee some level of income. Between the months of January and August, attacks on companies linked to bitcoin mining multiplied by six
The international community has been constantly on the alert regarding unusual activities related to Bitcoins, especially since the WannaCry cyber attack in May of this year.
At the same time during 2017, multiple reports and warnings about the proliferation of malwares and identity impersonation related to cryptocurrency mining have been issued. Neither Aviva or Gemalto have given official statements about the attacks after the RedLock announcement.