According to recent reports, criminals target Bitcoins in more than one fifth of attacks financial malware. Specifically, Bitcoin miners accounted for 14 percent of all financial attacks, while Bitcoin wallet-stealers represented 8 percent in the second quarter of 2014.
Hackers also use keyloggers or key logging malware to steal authentication credentials users for online payment systems and banking four percent of financial attacks. While traditional banking malware still accounts for the largest number of currency attacks to 74 percent, that Bitcoins are targeted to a total of 22 percent of the attacks should warn Bitcoin users on the sensitivity of this coin fraud .
downward trend in Bitcoin-targeted attacks
Undoubtedly, Bitcoins are a popular target for virtual financial attacks, but the good news is that these attacks are actually down. When comparing this year's figures with those of 2013, the annual report of Kaspersky, you can see the decline in the prevalence of these attacks. The report of the company in 2013 reported that Bitcoin wallet stolen malware accounted for 20.2 percent of financial malware attacks and Bitcoin mining accounted for 8.9 percent.
The Bitcoin mining landscape changed course, cybercriminals now promoting malware Mining theft portfolio. Yet the percentage of targeted financial attacks Bitcoins fell 29.1 percent last year to 22 percent in 2014.
About Bitcoins
Bitcoins first appearance on the scene in 08 as a currency "digital" "that allows users to perform online transactions" without a central bank according to ABC News users can get Bitcoins by three methods:. purchase of an exchange receipt for goods and services, and mining for new. mining Bitcoins means to discover new coins, like striking gold.
what Is Bitcoin mining
to understand the implications of the latest Internet security report Kapersky, you must first understand how the attacks targeted Bitcoin work. Here, mining Bitcoin simply refers to transactions involving checking Bitcoins. For example, say John Doe buys an iPad Jane Doe and pay with Bitcoin. To authenticate the legitimacy of John Bitcoin miners begin to thoroughly check the transaction. The miners are trying to check multiple transactions simultaneously, not just one. Such operations are compiled in unverified transaction boxes protected by a digital lock, known as "chain blocks." Bitcoin Miners then create a program to discover the key to the padlock.
Why mine for Bitcoins
once the software is the key, the unit unlocks and operations therein are checked. as a reward for determining the key, the miner receives 25 Bitcoins newly created. the number means necessary attempts to determine the correct key is 1,789,546,951.05 according Blockchain.info.
with sales like that, you can imagine the tremendous amount of iT resources to find the correct key, which is where Bitcoin mining malware comes in. cybercriminals use this form of malware to install Bitcoin-mining programs in systems of infected users. In this way, criminals can exploit the IT resources of these systems for personal gain through mining on a large scale.
How to Infect Miners and exploiting user systems
Most users are plagued by malware mining Bitcoin malicious downloads or social media. This malware can also use the applications and / or deficiencies in the system to cause infection. Specifically, malware mining can be inadvertently downloaded when visiting malicious sites, linked to a Tweet or received via a network vulnerability that requires systems to join the Bitcoin pools.
Once a user's system is infected, the malware starts forcing to create Bitcoins gain for criminals. For example, mining malware could come with multiple IP addresses that tries to access exchange information, download additional malware, receive revised IP addresses and get lists of sites on which wages distributed denial of service (DDoS).
The result is a huge consumer computing power of infected systems. Infected systems will operate more slowly over time. Although mining malware does not seem to find specific users, hackers prefer to target systems with sophisticated graphics processing units (GPUs) and video cards from this material can process Bitcoins faster. As a result, gamers and those who use heavy graphics applications can be particularly vulnerable to mining Bitcoin malware.
The Obsolescence of malware mines
Although Bitcoin malware remains an Internet safety concern, it is increasingly falling out of favor because the security companies and authorities largely caught sophistication. Cybercriminals have found endless iterations of Bitcoin malware programs developed to establish the mining complex botnets to ransomware that requires Bitcoin payment. Fortunately security companies have dismantled several networks of zombies mining Bitcoin since last year, including cryptolocker this summer.
Even in the absence of intervention by security experts and law enforcement, mining Bitcoin malware is becoming an obsolete notion, largely due to simple economics. For example, a new report from McAfee noted that while mining botnets have become mainstream, they are outdated and generally futile. The obsolescence of the concept is mainly due to the excessive difficulty of efficient mining Bitcoins with no specialized equipment.
Bitcoin Wallet-Stealers
Bitcoin wallet thieves are less popular with digital thieves as mining, but they remain a threat nonetheless. Hackers create these applications to find and empty Bitcoin wallet files of computers infected users. When the software detects Bitcoin wallet files, it sends the command and control of the malware server. Because Bitcoins are not backed by a central bank, once they are lost or stolen, they are completely sunk, like money. Most often, Bitcoin wallet stealing malware comes from spam emails that pose as something legitimate.
The latest report from Kaspersky clear that Bitcoin malware still figures prominently in digital financial attacks. However, the prevalence and sustainability of mining and Bitcoin malware fly portfolio are both on the decline as security specialists develop more sophisticated ways to thwart the efforts of cybercriminals. The takeaway for users concerned about security of the Internet is to be especially cautious of suspicious emails and potentially malicious websites that can infect systems with malware Bitcoin. As with any security threat, users must also download and execute updates of versions of their anti-virus software.
0 Komentar