McAfee Says Crypto Mining Malware Increased 4,000% in 2018

[Lmaooo]

The 2018 McAfee Labs Threat Report in December has shown a massive increase in crypto mining malware activity this year that is in the 4,000% region.

The report shows that the sharp rises began in the final quarter of 2017 through the first quarter of 2018. During the second quarter of the year, the figures dropped and then jumped again between the second and third quarter,

The figures have shown that crypto-criminals are now targeting miners with new cryptojacking malware. Crypto mining malware rose 71% in Q3 of 2018 alone according to McAfee. Criminals have been targeting those who use “routers or IoT devices such as IP cameras or video recorders as crypto miners” because they lack security and have weak CPUs.

McAfee also discussed a few examples of how crypto-criminals were exploiting the users of messenger services such as Telegram, Discord, and Slack to infect their computers with mining malware.

CCN | https://www.ccn.com/mcafee-says-crypto-mining-malware-increased-4000-in-2018/

[cellard]

I had a couple of windows builds that I managed and when I forgot about keeping them up to date they ended up getting infected by some sort of ransomware. The disks automatically encrypted themselves and now they ask for a password. Luckily there isn't anything of value that I think of. That coupled with some loss of passes, I have a set of unusable HDDs.

Anyway, if anything ransomware infections will forever have a bullish reason for Bitcoin. This demand will continue as ransomware will keep getting more effective and owners of infected computers must buy Bitcoin or lose the data.

[davis196]

I had a couple of windows builds that I managed and when I forgot about keeping them up to date they ended up getting infected by some sort of ransomware. The disks automatically encrypted themselves and now they ask for a password. Luckily there isn't anything of value that I think of. That coupled with some loss of passes, I have a set of unusable HDDs.

Anyway, if anything ransomware infections will forever have a bullish reason for Bitcoin. This demand will continue as ransomware will keep getting more effective and owners of infected computers must buy Bitcoin or lose the data.

Ransomare have a bullish reason for bitcoin?Do you really think that forcing more people to buy btc in order to pay those ransoms will drive the bitcoin price up?BTC ransomware creates a negative image of bitcoin and it forces the bitcoin price to decrease.I don't think that anybody would be that stupid to pay a bitcoin ransome,because most of the time,they will never unlock their data.

[el kaka22]

It is one of the easiest ways to make money if you are smart and your victims are not smart at all. I mean you do not "hack" anything on their computer, you don't steal anything, you don't basically get anything from them aside from their GPU or CPU. Of course that causes their computers to be incredibly slow and get old much quicker and even sometimes breaks their computers which are the bad sides of this thing but in the end when there are hackers who are out to get your credit card information, this seems a lot less damaging to people.

You just put some mining malware and let it work and make money from it. If you could achieve thousands of computers all at once than you can make thousands of dollars without mining a single bit yourself. It is really genius if you ask me.

[hatshepsut93]

I had a couple of windows builds that I managed and when I forgot about keeping them up to date they ended up getting infected by some sort of ransomware. The disks automatically encrypted themselves and now they ask for a password. Luckily there isn't anything of value that I think of. That coupled with some loss of passes, I have a set of unusable HDDs.

Anyway, if anything ransomware infections will forever have a bullish reason for Bitcoin. This demand will continue as ransomware will keep getting more effective and owners of infected computers must buy Bitcoin or lose the data.

Being up to date doesn't make you immune and it's obviously is not the reason of infection. I've turned off updates on my windows 10 a year ago and to this day I haven't got a single case of malware. You just need to be very careful about what you install on your machine, regardless of the platform. Also, use the admin account if you don't need to, because it makes very easy for malware to do anything it wants.

There's nothing bullish in ransomware, people who buy BTC to pay up their ransoms are nothing compared to daily volumes. Then, there's no guarantee that criminals don't sell BTC asap. Also it tarnishes Bitcoin's reputation.

[masterzino]

Most users aren't aware what is going on with their machines. So it's a normal development of things.

Crooks are always looking for a new ways to make some dirty bucks and crypto miners are much more easiest than extortions for example.

[Harlot]

This might also be the reason why miners are shutting down even though the mining difficulty had decreased. There are so many vulnerabilities and threats being done to them that the their main income is being affected not only by price but also to criminals like them. The whole industry is affected because of it and it is giving FUD in the market showing that the miners are not coming back to mine crypto. As usual the only way to counter this is by upgrading their security which they should have done by now but still miners are not coming back so I think prices are a more concern for them.

[kryptqnick]

Unfortunately, that seems right. My antivirus is blocking files that have 'miner' in their names pretty often. And that's something that comes not even from deliberate downloads, but from reading some articles and watching videos on various websites! My father also had such an issue with lots of monero being mined on his computer for months. Exploiting others is easy and profitable, because they are paying the bills. I am pretty sure most of people don't even notice that their PCs are not working as good as they could. I think it's important for people to become aware of that. As such attacks become more common, I'm sure the newer antiviruses will target this type of malware in the future.

[omonuyak]

The 2018 McAfee Labs Threat Report in December has shown a massive increase in crypto mining malware activity this year that is in the 4,000% region.

The report shows that the sharp rises began in the final quarter of 2017 through the first quarter of 2018. During the second quarter of the year, the figures dropped and then jumped again between the second and third quarter,

The figures have shown that crypto-criminals are now targeting miners with new cryptojacking malware. Crypto mining malware rose 71% in Q3 of 2018 alone according to McAfee. Criminals have been targeting those who use “routers or IoT devices such as IP cameras or video recorders as crypto miners” because they lack security and have weak CPUs.

McAfee also discussed a few examples of how crypto-criminals were exploiting the users of messenger services such as Telegram, Discord, and Slack to infect their computers with mining malware.

CCN | https://www.ccn.com/mcafee-says-crypto-mining-malware-increased-4000-in-2018/

This is very serious and that is the much reason why we need security projects that can guide investors investments and miners.  Alot of criminal are going on and those criminals are using all means to steal bitcoin and others cryptocurrencies.  I think McAfee is quiet correct in the % of the malware attack this year as this is also affecting the market 

[cellard]

I had a couple of windows builds that I managed and when I forgot about keeping them up to date they ended up getting infected by some sort of ransomware. The disks automatically encrypted themselves and now they ask for a password. Luckily there isn't anything of value that I think of. That coupled with some loss of passes, I have a set of unusable HDDs.

Anyway, if anything ransomware infections will forever have a bullish reason for Bitcoin. This demand will continue as ransomware will keep getting more effective and owners of infected computers must buy Bitcoin or lose the data.

Ransomare have a bullish reason for bitcoin?Do you really think that forcing more people to buy btc in order to pay those ransoms will drive the bitcoin price up?BTC ransomware creates a negative image of bitcoin and it forces the bitcoin price to decrease.I don't think that anybody would be that stupid to pay a bitcoin ransome,because most of the time,they will never unlock their data.

Well, the bitcoins have to be bought nonetheless. Irrespective of the moral wrong of infecting people with ransomware which is obviously a bad thing, looking strictly at supply and demand, the demand of bitcoin grows as the infected with ransomware have to buy it to take back control of data.

If the hackers aren't dumb, they will not sell the coins in the markets, so it will not have a negative impact on price.

The net result is a price that raises.

[dothebeats]

It is still on the rise albeit the recent crash in price of cryptocurrencies. It usually appears on sites that give you direct access on download links and automatically installs the malware on your machine in the background. I've become a victim of such on my gaming machine back in 2017, when I downloaded a dll file that is needed to run a certain game. I usually get 200+ fps on the same game on ultra preset, but suddenly the performance shifted to shit (30-40 fps on normal scenes) which prompted me to do a full scan of the said machine. To my surprise, a mining malware is active on my pc which causes the poor performance of the rig on the said game. Luckily the malware was easy to remove yet I still did a full reformat just to be safe.

Heck, even websites have embedded mining malware scripts that run on the background that the end-user doesn't know about.

[cybernetik7]

Like in every sector, thieves who want to make easy money harm on crypto mining sector. Since we all are not computer experts, we don't know whether our computers are used by these hackers.  Exploiting people like us is very easy and they gain money without paying the bills.

[tdrinker]

Malware will only become more complex and more prevalent as there is so much money to be made through success. Perhaps Mr McAfee might transition in to making an anti-malware for miners.

[netto7]

crypto mining malware will come with  new crypto mining software  and say more hashrate with low dev fee.

in Q3 it have a lot of malware mining software


i try to report scam miner in this  topic  i hope it can help

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5047129.msg46700620#msg46700620

[jossiel]

Those telegram groups and other same channels who have been operating a "cloud mining" service inside became rampant this year. People should learn and be vigilant about it and must be careful with things like this.

The number of newbies who are being introduced to this type of trade in cryptos are increasing as well, so the victims are. To those that dont want to leave those telegram groups and is requiring you to download a file with an unfamiliar extension file, be aware of that because it can be the script that will be injected to your computers.

[Semosuchi Tesongrato]

Well, malware gets everywhere, no wonder it's even in the mining industry.
However, such an exaggerated increase only indicates that you are dedicated to mining incompetent people who do not take a minimum of precautions against attacks.

[charlotte04]

The 2018 McAfee Labs Threat Report in December has shown a massive increase in crypto mining malware activity this year that is in the 4,000% region.

The report shows that the sharp rises began in the final quarter of 2017 through the first quarter of 2018. During the second quarter of the year, the figures dropped and then jumped again between the second and third quarter,

The figures have shown that crypto-criminals are now targeting miners with new cryptojacking malware. Crypto mining malware rose 71% in Q3 of 2018 alone according to McAfee. Criminals have been targeting those who use “routers or IoT devices such as IP cameras or video recorders as crypto miners” because they lack security and have weak CPUs.

McAfee also discussed a few examples of how crypto-criminals were exploiting the users of messenger services such as Telegram, Discord, and Slack to infect their computers with mining malware.

CCN | https://www.ccn.com/mcafee-says-crypto-mining-malware-increased-4000-in-2018/

For me, McAfee really doesn't know anything about crypto. He just do his job as an influencer to hype people up for a coin and many people also follows him for that.

[netto7]

The 2018 McAfee Labs Threat Report in December has shown a massive increase in crypto mining malware activity this year that is in the 4,000% region.

The report shows that the sharp rises began in the final quarter of 2017 through the first quarter of 2018. During the second quarter of the year, the figures dropped and then jumped again between the second and third quarter,

The figures have shown that crypto-criminals are now targeting miners with new cryptojacking malware. Crypto mining malware rose 71% in Q3 of 2018 alone according to McAfee. Criminals have been targeting those who use “routers or IoT devices such as IP cameras or video recorders as crypto miners” because they lack security and have weak CPUs.

McAfee also discussed a few examples of how crypto-criminals were exploiting the users of messenger services such as Telegram, Discord, and Slack to infect their computers with mining malware.

CCN | https://www.ccn.com/mcafee-says-crypto-mining-malware-increased-4000-in-2018/

For me, McAfee really doesn't know anything about crypto. He just do his job as an influencer to hype people up for a coin and many people also follows him for that.

i think mr. mcafee not working at company any more.

this report come from employee

[Luchinono]

The statistics just goes to show there have been an increase in the number of scammers across the network,installing malwares is one very way to get the better of crypto enthusiast,but I think the success of such attempts have been at a reduced level, as people are now more vigilant, far more wiser and more proactive to such scam attempts

[1Referee]

i think mr. mcafee not working at company any more.

this report come from employee

John is long over anything related to AV solutions. He keeps trashing them hard. They don't work, and they are an entry point for governments to sniff through your files without you knowing.

It's not all that long ago where various governments have stopped using Kaspersky AV out of fear for the Russian government.

In the end, people are stupid. If you don't chase quick gains and free money that doesn't exist, you won't have to deal with any of this. Using common sense is more effective than all the AV solutions combined. People intentionally install crap and in some cases intentionally ignore AV warnings, so there is nothing that you can do to stop this. Expect it to grow the deeper we dig into mainstream adoption.