Home Latest News Cyberattacks on Crypto Users’ Devices have Quadrupled in Q1 of this Year

Cyberattacks on Crypto Users’ Devices have Quadrupled in Q1 of this Year

by CISOCONNECT Bureau

According to a new report, as cybercriminals installed malicious programs called Miners to steal cryptocurrency from compromised devices — the number of attacks on cryptocurrency users has quadrupled in the first quarter of this year.

In Q1 2021, the number of unique miner modifications more than quadrupled, from 3,815 to 16,934.

Over the course, researchers from the cyber security firm Kaspersky uncovered 23,894 new modifications of miners.

Miners are frequently installed without the users’ awareness and then slowly siphoning off various types of cryptocoins, with the miners walking away with millions in certain situations.

The number of Kaspersky users who had experienced miners on their devices climbed significantly, from 187,746 in January to 200,045 in March 2021.

In the first quarter of 2021, 432,171 unique users were exposed to miners.

Commenting on the report, Evgeny Lopatin, security expert at Kaspersky, said “It’s too early to say for sure if the trend we’ve noted in Q1 2021 is here to stay. However, it does seem that the increase in the value of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrency has sparked a renewed interest in miners,”

He said in a statement, “If the crypto markets remains strong this year, it’s like we’ll continue to see more instances of users encountering miners,”

Another noticeable trend was a decline in the number of users who encountered both mobile and PC banking Trojans, as well as an increase in the number of ransomware Trojan modifications, which increased from 3,096 in Q4 2020 to 4,354 in Q1 2021.

Because miners are frequently distributed as “riskware,” security solutions do not automatically prevent them.

Another noticeable trend was a decline in the number of users who encountered both mobile and PC banking Trojans, as well as an increase in the number of ransomware Trojan modifications, which increased from 3,096 in Q4 2020 to 4,354 in Q1 2021.

Because miners are frequently distributed as “riskware,” security solutions do not automatically prevent them.

The researchers advised “You may want to configure your security solution’s settings to block any ‘riskware’ programmes,”

Bitcoin is currently resting around $38,000, having recently reached a record high of nearly $60,000 a couple of weeks ago.

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