Today’s threat landscape is shifting from cyber crime monetization tactics, such as ransomware and credit card theft, to a new breed of malware: cryptominers. Cryptominers take over a computer’s resources and use them for illicit cryptocurrency mining.
The use of malicious cryptominers has surged as cyber criminals rush to exploit a new cryptocurrency, based on the concepts behind Bitcoin, called “Monero.” Several successful multi-million dollar heists tied to this open source, peer-to-peer cryptocurrency were reported in the first few months of 2018 alone.
This research report provides an in-depth look at current cryptominer trends and the technology behind Monero. It explores the projected attack methods that threat actors are likely to adopt, as well as tactics and best practices that security teams can utilize to keep themselves on the right side of this emerging cat-and-mouse game.
