Study finds overwhelming share of cloud-server attacks target cryptojacking

95% of attacks on compromised cloud servers are aimed at covert cryptocurrency mining, according to a report by Aqua Security, a cybersecurity firm.

Aqua released a new 70-page #threat report by Team Nautilus, Aqua’s #cybersecurity research team, that reveals a growing, organized and increasingly sophisticated pattern of attacks on #cloudnative infrastructure.

Learn more:https://t.co/isrHOTIGOg

— Aqua Security (@AquaSecTeam) September 14, 2020

The firm deliberately uses misconfigured servers to bait attacks. This yields data on attack volumes, targeting, attackers’ tools and methods, and insights into how to counter them.

From June 2019 to July 2020, the company’s honeypot servers were subjected to 16,731 attacks. Aqua Security recorded a sharp rise in the first half of this year: in December the daily attack average was 12, and by June it had risen to 43.

95% of the total attacks were directed at mining cryptocurrency using harvested computing power. Aqua Security specialists noted that the attackers preferred mining Monero (XMR).

«We believe they choose Monero because it is considered significantly more anonymous than Bitcoin», the researchers say.

What is Monero (XMR)?

Earlier, according to Symantec, in the second quarter of 2020 the number of covert browser-based cryptocurrency mining cases rose by 163%.

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