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Kaspersky Lab: the number of cases of cryptojacking in 2018 has increased by 40%

According to the information provided by the experts of the Kaspersky Lab, in 2018, 13 million cases of cryptojacking were registered, which is 40% (3.5 million) more than last year.

cryptojacking

The popularity of digital currencies is growing rapidly, and along with it, the number of cryptocurrency crimes is increasing. Although many participants in the cryptocurrency industry indicate the unstable behaviour of the market as the main problem of the industry this year, the representatives of the Kaspersky Lab are ready to argue with it.

According to the information provided by the Russian company of cybersecurity, the main type of the cryptocurrency crimes taking place during this year was cryptojacking. If during the last year, the extortion programs were very popular among the cybercriminals, then this year the number of such attacks was significantly reduced. However, unfortunately, the reason for this is not at all a general decrease in crime – cybercriminals have switched to a more profitable type of attack.

What is cryptojacking?

The term “cryptojacking” is used to describe the activities of the law offenderassociated with the mining of digital currencies. Cryptojackers capture the computers of the cryptocurrency users and direct their funds to their own addresses.

In order to get access to the victim's computer, cryptojackers use malicious scripts. The malicious code runs on the infected computer and works so unnoticed that the victim does not have any suspicions. After some time, the script can interfere with the operation of the processor, slowing down the computer. Very often anonymous cryptocurrencies like Monero (XMR) are obtained by using cryptojacking.

The most alarming statistics in this regard are observed in the countries of the Middle East and Africa, where the number of the cases of cryptojacking has quadrupled in comparison with the last year.


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