What is Cyrptojacking in Cyber security?
Cryptojacking is a threat that embeds itself within a computer or mobile device in an unauthorized way and then uses its resources to mine cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrency is digital or virtual money, which is in the form of tokens or “coins”. The cryptocurrency is mined through the malware which is installed on the victim’s computer, which uses their processing power to mine cryptocurrency without their knowledge or consent. Cryptomining can slow down the victim’s system and can cause it to use more electricity, significantly leading to higher electricity bills for the victim. Cryptojacking can be termed as a form of cyber attack and is illegal in many countries. In general, cryptocurrencies make use of distributed databases, which is known as ‘blockchain’ for operation. The blockchain is regularly updated with information about all the transactions that took place since the last update. Each set of recent transactions is combined into a ‘block’ using a complex mathematical process. For the production of new blocks, cryptocurrencies depend on individuals to provide the computing power. Cryptocurrencies reward people who supply the computing power with cryptocurrency. These people who trade computing resources for currency are called “miners”. How does Cryptojacking Malware work? Cryptojacking is considered to be more popular because of its low entry barrier and high profitability. Hackers can sneak into devices and run crypto mining malware with few lines of code (usually JavaScript), operating secretly in the background. Cryptojackers usually lure the users to click on links through phishing emails and make them download malicious code into their devices. Another approach undertaken by them is to infect websites using cryptojacking command lines embedded in HTML code. This code then runs the mining program automatically when the user opens the infected webpage. Hackers often use both methods to maximize their return. In both cases, the code places the cryptojacking script onto the device, which runs in the background as the victim works. Among the cryptojacking malwares, some of them can even pass the virus to more than one device. In some scenarios, the attackers can benefit from the large computing resources of a server farm for free. The main objective of Cryptojacking is not the corruption or theft of personal data, rather getting access to devices and utilize the machine’s computing power. The attackers have an incentive to remain undetected because the longer the mining program runs, the more cryptocurrency they can obtain. In early instances of cryptomining, some web publishers sought to monetize their traffic by asking visitor’s permission to mine for cryptocurrencies while on their site. They considered it as a fair exchange, where visitors would receive free content while the sites would use their computer for mining. In many gaming sites, users might stay on the page for sometime while the JavaScript code mines for coins. As soon as they leave the site, the cryptomining ends. Thus, users must know whether sites are being honest or not. Effects of Cryptojacking The primary way that Cryptojacking attacks impact a user’s device is by making it slow and causing it to use more electricity. This occurs because the malware installed on the victim’s computer will use their computer’s processing power to mine cryptocurrency. Cryptojacking can even infect Android mobile devices through a Trojan hidden in a downloaded app. Many times, a user’s phone can be redirected to an infected site, that leaves a persistent pop-under. Some crypto mining scripts have worming capabilities that allow them to infect other devices and servers on a network. This makes them harder to identify and remove. These scripts may also check to see if the device is already infected by competing crypto mining malware. If another cryptominer is detected, the script disables it. Crypto Jacking Attack Methods There are two main types of cryptojacking attacks: Crypto Jacking Attack Examples Below are some high profile examples of cryptojacking attacks: How to detect Crypto Jacking? Cryptojacking is crafted to be as undetectable as possible, but there are many symptoms to detect such attacks: How to Defend Against Cryptojacking Attacks? Cryptojacking is similar to other types of malware attacks and so are its prevention techniques. Thus, following methods are some of the best ways to prevent cryptojacking attacks: Want to start your learning journey on Cyber Security and Ethical Hacking field?