Attacks of hackers targeting cryptocurrencies - a process called "mining" - have grown allover the place and nowadays they moved on from traditional hacking to mining using the remote computer resources, according to Kaspersky Lab technology company.
"Attacks on software that seek cryptocurrencies are part of a trend that we have highlighted in our predictions for this year. Thus, we expect hackers to take advantage of the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies in 2018 and steal money from users' digital wallets, or secretly install mining tools on devices, especially mobile devices, "says a study of the company, according to Mediafax.
Kaspersky Lab's research shows that the number of people affected by such attacks has already exceeded two million in 2017. On the other side "if the problem is properly managed and the user's consent, some cryptocurrencies mining methods may become a legitimate form of monetization for sites and / or applications that will in the meantime replace advertisements ". In other words, "users could well provide their resources in return for accessing the content available on those sites," notes Kaspersky Lab.
Such attacks are possible due to the vulnerabilities of either the website or the hosting company and are easy to do, many sites being broken and the Coinhive code being injected into the source. According to the researchers, such an attack "is not necessarily very dangerous for site visitors, but it has unpleasant effects because it uses the resources of the devices and slows down their operation."
"To protect themselves, we recommend site administrators to use complex security solutions that include server protection, and Internet users - to maintain their upgraded security programs so they can block such scripts . We also recommend browser extensions such as uBlock Origin, Noscript, or Adblock to combat the attempts to use their resources without their knowledge or consent, "said Dan Demeter, Security Researcher at Kaspersky Lab.