Cryptominer Malware Threats Overtake Ransomware, Report Warns

[Faybert]

Content source

https://threatpost.com/cryptominer-malware-threats-overtake-ransomware-report-warns/131237/

SAN FRANCISCO – Cryptomining malware is the top threat to watch out for this year, according to a new report – with attacks jumping higher than ransomware instances in the first quarter of 2018.

A new report by Comodo Cybersecurity, released Tuesday at RSA Conference 2018, found that cryptominers have surged to the top of detected malware incidents in the first quarter of 2018. Ransomware attacks, which recently dominated Verizon’s Data Breach Investigations Report for 2017, declined significantly in volume over the past three months in 2018, researchers found.

“Criminals’ proclivities to steal money more efficiently were evident with the surge in cryptomining. And the continued strong correlation of attack volume with current geopolitical events shows hackers of all motivations are well aware of the opportunities major breaking news provides them,” said Kenneth Geers, chief research scientist at Comodo Cybersecurity.

During the first quarter of 2018, Comodo said it detected 28.9 million cryptominer incidents out of a total of 300 million malware incidents. The number of unique cryptominer variants grew from 93,750 in January to 127,000 in March.

Meanwhile, the amount of new ransomware variants fell from 124,320 in January to 71,540 in March, decreasing by 42 percent.

Comodo said that the higher value of cryptocurrencies has bolstered the amount of money that hackers can rake in. Also, while hackers were able to cash in on one time payments through ransomware attacks, cryptominers “are the gift that keeps on giving.”
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[ForgottenSeer 58943]

I haven't run into Ransomware in over a year.

But we see dozens of Cryptominers a week, at the minimum. I don't even consider ransomware much of a threat anymore and it seems to have really died down. If you don't use outlook and open attachments, ransomware risk is probably near-zero right now with any of the basic antivirus suites in place.

Cryptos, those are coming in from everywhere now.