Crypto mining activity over the web scripts doubled last year compared to 2016. It also increased in December and January. More companies in the entrepreneur or business environment are on target.
Cyren Security Lab has found a 725% increase in the number of domains running crypto mining scripts in one or more of their pages from last September to January. The lab found out from a sample of a sample of 500,000 sites that the number of domains with such scripts leveled in November last year but then doubled in December and January.
1.4% of websites sampled were running the scripts either knowingly or unknowingly. The lab says that the doubling in mining activity is not surprising given the meteoric rise in cryptocurrency values. For instance, Monero shot up by almost 250 percent in value in the three months of their analysis. Monero cryptocurrency is the main one uses in crytomining scripts. It has recently been using in illegal crypto mining activity over the web has given that it is not easy to track Monero transactions to any person or IP.
The increase is, however, surprising given that cryptocurrency is in its infancy. It is expecting to grow exponentially in the coming days. Nevertheless, for purposes of security, the finding proves the need for installing a secure web gateway for those who do not want the malware effects. Such gateway can detect miner scripts in web pages and block them automatically. This will help protect businesses against illegal activity that could end up compromising their services. Whether it means through the improper and unlawful use of their web resources or stealing their data.
For instance, this can also in use for primary websites, cloud applications, and URLs that are aware to serve crypto malware or run JavaScript.
SecureWorks, which provides cybersecurity services to many companies around the world. It also released a detailed report about the increasing threat of cryptocurrency mining malware. The company noted the large-scale unauthorized cryptocurrency mining in an enterprise environment. It says this activity could affect critical business activity to the point of slowing down processes because it takes up significant resources.
Crypto mining on the web has been increasing but was dominant last year as cryptocurrency prices shot up. Kaspersky Lab also said 2.7 million users were affecting by malicious crypto miners a previous year. This was a 50 percent increase compares to 2016.
Source of the article: Crypto Mining Scripts
