About $1.7 billion in cryptocurrency had been obtained via illicit means in 2018, according to research published by crypto analytics company CipherTrace on Jan. 29. Of that $1.7 billion, over $950 million was stolen from crypto exchanges, representing a 3.6 times increase over 2017. On the other hand, at least $725 million was lost in 2018 to scams such as ponzi schemes, exit schemes and fraudulent initial coin offerings (ICOs). CipherTrace also listed what the company believes to be the top ten cryptocurrency threats: the highest is SIM swapping, which is a kind of identity theft involving taking control over …

Top Stories This Week Ethereum’s Constantinople Hard Fork Delayed Until February After Vulnerability Found Ethereum’s (ETH) Constantinople hard fork has been delayed until late February after smart contract audit firm ChainSecurity found a security vulnerability allowing a reentrancy attack. The security bug found would potentially let an attacker steal crypto from a smart contract on the network while requesting funds from it repeatedly while feeding it false data. In the aftermath of the discovery, Ethereum developers said that the activation would instead take place at block number 7,280.000, which is expected to be mined on Feb. 27, 2019, instead of …

A new cryptojacking malware has the ability to disable cloud-based security measures to avoid detection on Linux servers, research by information security company Palo Alto Networks Jan. 17 reveals. The malware in question mines Monero (XMR) and is reportedly a modified version of one used by the so-called “Rocke” group, originally discovered by cybersecurity firm Talos in August last year. According to the research, one of the first things that the malware does is check for other cryptocurrency mining processes and add firewall rules to block any other cryptojacking malware. The virus reportedly also searches for cloud security services by …

New malware posing as a movie file from torrent website The Pirate Bay (TPB) can manipulate web pages and replace Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) addresses, computing magazine Bleeping Computer reported Jan. 12. The malware — originally thought to inject advertising on Google and in search results — in fact performs multiple actions, some of which were discovered by the publication’s own researcher Lawrence Abrams. “What appeared to be an ad-injector into the main Google search page turned out to be only the tip of the iceberg,” the researchers warned. The file containing malicious code poses as a movie file …

Three strains of crypto mining malware have topped the latest Global Threat Index from Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point, according to a press release published on Jan. 14. Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. is a security solution provider for governments and enterprises globally, with over 100,000 organizations reported to be currently using its security management system. As reported, stealth crypto mining attacks — also known as cryptojacking — work by installing malware that uses a computer’s processing power to mine for cryptocurrencies without the owner’s consent or knowledge. According to Check Point’s Global Threat Index for December 2018, the top …

A recent spate of ransomware attacks estimated to have earned hackers 705.08 Bitcoin (BTC) ($2.5 million) likely came from Russian cybercriminals, not North Korean state-sponsored actors as initially thought. The development was reported on The Next Web’s crypto-focused news site Hard Fork on Jan. 14. Hard Fork cites evidence from cybersecurity research teams McAfee Labs and Crowdstrike, which have analyzed the strategies used in developing and disseminating the Ryuk ransomware strain, and concluded that the identity and motivations of its masterminds have most likely until now been misreported. The Ryuk campaign notably attracted wide attention following its targeting of major …

Estonia-based cryptocurrency and tokenized stock exchange DX.Exchange has reportedly fixed a critical vulnerability that leaked sensitive user data. Technology news website Ars Technica reported on the security leak Jan. 9, citing an anonymous trader who conducted a security analysis of DX.Exchange. According to Ars Technica’s article, a trader, who wished to remain anonymous due to legal concerns, noticed that the exchange was sending sensitive data of other users to their browser. After examining the data, the trader has reportedly found that the data included other users’ authentication tokens and password reset links: “I have about 100 collected [authentication] tokens over …

Cryptocurrency mining malware is responsible for less of the supply of altcoin Monero (XMR) in circulation than previously thought, new research published Jan. 3 claims. A joint effort by researchers at King’s College London and Carlos III University in Madrid, Spain, the study analyzed huge swathes of malware over a twelve-year period. “In this paper, we conduct the largest measurement of crypto-mining malware to date, analyzing approximately 4.4 million malware samples (1 million malicious miners),” authors Sergio Pastrana and Guillermo Suarez-Tangil confirm. According to their calculations, Monero, which continues to be a favorite target for malicious mining operations, has an …

Cryptojacking malware activity rose by over 4000 percent in 2018, according to a new quarterly report published by cyber security firm McAfee Labs, Dec. 18. Cryptojacking is the practice of using a computer’s processing power to mine for cryptocurrencies without the owner’s consent or knowledge. The McAfee statistic of over 4000 percent specifically refers to total instances of a cryptojacking malware, referred to in the study as “coin miner.” The report extends to a range of new crypto mining malware threat vectors, which notably include a spike in new malware targeting Internet of Things (IoT) devices: “New [mining] malware targeting …

Cryptojacking, the unauthorized use of another’s hardware to mine cryptocurrency, has become the biggest cyber threat in many parts of the world, Bloomberg reported Dec. 14. According to research from cyber security research firm Kaspersky Lab, cryptojacking overtook ransomware as the biggest cybersecurity threat particularly in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa. In Afghanistan and Ethiopia over one out of four detected malware are cryptocurrency miners, according to Kaspersky’s data. As cited by the Bloomberg, Kaspersky’s research “shows crypto mining attacks have risen almost fourfold in the region, from 3.5 million in 2017 to 13 million this year.” The cybersecurity …

The number of MikroTik routers affected by cryptojacking malware has repotedly doubled since summer 2018, reaching 415,000, security researcher VriesHd tweeted Sunday, Dec. 2. Since August, VriesHd has been reporting on crypto malware that targets routers and forces them to mine cryptocurrencies along with the researchers from Bad Packets Report. They revealed that routers by Mikrotik, a Latvian manufacturer of network equipment, were compromised by at least 16 different types of malware including Coinhive, a cryptojacking software mining privacy-oriented cryptocurrency Monero (XMR). By September the estimated number of compromised routers surpassed 280,000, according to Bad Packets. In the recent tweet …

A new bulletin from Russian internet security company Kaspersky Labs published Nov. 28 states that crypto mining malware became increasingly popular among botnets in 2018. Stealth crypto mining attacks – also know as cryptojacking – work by installing malware that uses a computer’s processing power to mine for cryptocurrencies without the owner’s consent or knowledge. According to Kaspersky, after the crypto market bull run subsided in Jan.-Feb. 2018, interest in cryptojacking also briefly tapered off – yet it has nonetheless remained a consistent and current threat throughout the year. Number of unique users attacked by miners in Q1–Q3 2018 Among …