In the third quarter of 2020, activity by cryptojacking software rose. This is according to a threat report by ESET.
Experts link the renewed popularity of cryptojacking to the rise in Bitcoin price, which in September reached a two-year high above $13,000.
During this period, one of the active programs aimed at stealing and mining cryptocurrency, became the malware KryptoCibule. The virus’s capabilities allow it to launch covert mining on the victim’s device, substitute cryptocurrency-wallet addresses, and steal personal information.
The number of malicious emails rose by 9% quarter over quarter. Through email campaigns, a WannaCry variant spread, the damage from its activity in 2017 exceeded $1 billion.
“Despite the decline in ransomware attacks, more than half of all detected samples in this category of viruses were Win/Filecoder.WannaCrypto,” according to an ESET report.
Ranking of detected ransomware samples / Source: ESET.
Earlier in Q2 2020, the number of covert browser-based cryptocurrency mining incidents rose 163% from the previous quarter.
By the first half of 2020, among the top threats, ransomware viruses disappeared — accounting for only 1% of all hacker attacks.
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