Crypto jacking: protection against illegal mining

Nowadays, you can earn a lot with cryptocurrency, even without investing. You just need to familiarize yourself with all the existing methods under which such Bitcoin bots like News Spy gain popularity and protect yourself from cyber threats that await you on the Internet.

Recently, illegal crypto mining has been on the rise worldwide. There are two main types of illegal mining:

1. Mining, which is based on binary files - Mining the cryptocurrency with the help of malware downloaded to the user's device. The ESET solution is classified as a Trojan by most programs.
2. Browser-based mining - cryptocurrencies are accessed via a web browser with malicious JavaScript embedded in a web page or some of its parts/objects. This method is called cryptojacking and has been gaining popularity among cybercriminals since mid-2017. ESET detects most of these scripts as potentially unwanted programs.

Most illegal programs mine cryptocurrencies such as Monero or Ethereum. Compared to the better-known Bitcoin, they offer advantages such as high transaction anonymity and execution with conventional processors instead of special devices. Mining attacks take place on all computer platforms as well as on Android and iOS.

The number of such attacks is increasing every month, which indicates the following threats:

1. Illegal mining is supposedly not a major threat. However, organizations should not underestimate the risks of a threat. This process requires and usually uses most of the computing power of the device, reducing productivity and speed. The energy-intensive process causes additional strain and can damage your devices.
2. Malicious mining software exploits the organization's cybersecurity vulnerabilities, which can lead to serious infections and crashes. Devices and a network of business structures are a more attractive target than users' devices due to their high and concentrated power.

But how do you recognize an attack for the purpose of illegal mining?

Mining cryptocurrencies usually requires extremely high processor activity, which has a negative impact, for example:

• lower device performance;
• increase energy consumption;
• suspicious network traffic.

On Android devices, an additional load can cause the following effects:

• rapid battery discharge;
• significant heating of the appliances;
• Physical damage due to denting of the battery.

How can you protect yourself from the threats of illegal mining and crypto theft?

1. To protect servers and other devices, use multi-layered security solutions that can detect potentially unwanted mining programs, including Trojans.
2. Use threat detection software that can detect suspicious network communications related to illegal mining.
3. Improve visibility of network traffic using Remote Management Console to deploy security policies, monitor system status and protect corporate workstations and servers.
4. Educate your employees (including organizational leaders and network administrators) about cybersecurity, creating strong passwords and using two-factor authentication to increase the protection of corporate systems in the event of password theft.
5. Use the program control, with which you can reduce the number of software starts to a minimum and prevent the installation of malicious software for mining.
6. Apply robust software update and patch policies to reduce the risk of devices being infected with previously identified vulnerabilities, as many illegal mining threats use known exploits for propagation.
7. Monitor enterprise systems for excessive energy consumption, which can indicate unwanted activity from malicious mining software.