Rising threat of cryptojacking amid bitcoin boom

KUALA LUMPUR: Cryptojacking, targeted attacks and compromising software supply chain are among the burgeoning cyber threats to look out for while ransomware tones down, according to Symantec Corp's Internet Security Threat Profile Report.
The rise in cryptojacking or cryptocurrency mining has much to do with the astronomical rise in cryptocurrency values last year, triggering cyber criminals to cash in on a volatile market.
"Cryptojacking is a rising threat to cyber and personal security.The massive profit incentive puts people, devices and organisation at risk of unauthorised coin miners siphoning resources from their systems, further motivating criminals to infiltrate everything from home PCs to giant data centres," said Symantec Malaysia's director of systems engineering David Rajoo at a media briefing today.
He added that cyber criminals are moving away from ransomware to cryptojacking, as the ransomware market got overcrowded and overpriced.
As for targeted attacks, Symantec, which tracked 140 organised cyber crime groups, found 71% of them to have come from spear phishing, mostly done via emails. Attackers have also been known to inject malware into software supply chain.
David said businesses should always be prepared and aware of cyber security threats and implement multilayer security defences.
Consumers on the other hand were advised to keep their operating system and software up to date, be wary of emails and have their files backed up.