New Virtual Global Threat Targets Blockchain Platforms, Cryptocurrencies

Published at: Sept. 4, 2017

People have been talking about cryptocurrencies and Blockchain for the past few years. The innovation of Blockchain is undergoing more improvements, and the platform is getting stable.

In line with that, many people are starting to invest in Bitcoin and the other digital currencies. Businesses are now venturing out to explore Blockchain platform. Companies have research and studies about the possibility of applying the principle of the network- how it will be beneficial to the company and the consumers.

The attack of Trickbot

Lately, Trickbot has been a hot topic for attacking financial sectors. It has plagued the banks around the world. According to FraudWatch, the way Trickbot penetrates the banking systems is by using a malvertising campaign.

The Trickbot Trojan hamper significantly in US, UK and Australia in a new spam campaign which is Nercus-powered by productive botnets.

Researchers say that the spam campaign has been active for a few months. The malware attack targets to steal the login details, personal information and authentication codes.

On the recent attack of the Trickbot banking Trojan, spam campaigns spread and imitate the domain used by the financial institutions.

SANS ISC handler, Brad Duncan says:

"Almost all of these domains were registered through GoDaddy using various names or privacy services. And these domains were implemented on servers using full email authentication and HTTPS.  Many recipients could easily be tricked into opening the associated attachments.”

There is no concise report yet if GoDaddy takes action on the case.

Targeting cryptocurrency

The Blockchain platform, which is closely related to financial institutions is also not able to avoid the attack of Trickbot.

According to Forcepoint, they found out a Trickbot campaign which targets cryptocurrencies and reported to have targeted PayPal. Coinbase is an exchange site which solely involves cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin and digital assets. Malware also targets Coinbase which means that cryptocurrencies are also at risk from being stolen.

Researchers said that the malware has been ongoing over the web last year, targeting banks and resume attacking today upon adding cryptocurrency exchange website to their list.

The issue is a challenge to the stability and reliability of the Blockchain platform on how it will work out to figure if such cryptocurrency is stolen or acquired from a malware attack since every coin has a unique code itself.

Also, investors and business people will see the insusceptibility of the platform from Trickbot and malware alike.

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