Major cryptocurrency hardware wallet supplier Ledger has warned its users about another phishing attack trying to steal their crypto — this one using a Google Chrome extension. In a March 5 tweet, the French crypto company specified that there is a fake extension on Google Chrome browser that attempts to steal users’ crypto by asking them to enter their 24-word recovery phrase to access their wallet. Ledger Live gets removed from the Chrome Web Store The phishing attack was reported by Catalin Cimpanu, a cybersecurity reporter at business technology news website ZDNet on March 4. According to Cimpanu, the malicious …

In Kyiv, Ukraine, investigators have found another example of someone using the systems at their workplace for illicit cryptocurrency mining. The Kyiv Prosecutor’s Office official Facebook page announced on Feb. 26 that it concluded a pre-trial investigation against an unnamed individual in collaboration with the State Bureau of Investigation. The accused miner was an information technology specialist that held executive positions in the State Judicial Information Systems for a long time. According to the Prosector’s Office, he illegally used the network equipment and systems to mine crypto with malware installed on the machines. Furthermore, the defendant also allegedly provided placement …

2019 demonstrated that cyber-attacks are getting more numerous in the cryptocurrency industry, while hardware remains vulnerable and high-profile data leaks are becoming more common. Even worse, the trend is a continuing one. Way back in June 2018, Kaspersky Lab security experts reported an increase in the amount of malware targeting the cryptocurrency market. They noted a trend toward the spread of two types of malware: for hacking cryptocurrency wallets and for malicious Bitcoin (BTC) mining. As cybercrimes using digital money have begun to affect more countries and involve more advanced technologies, entire states and government organizations have come to grips …

Edge, the web browser of information technology giant Microsoft, now blocks cryptojacking malware. A Microsoft Edge spokesperson told Cointelegraph on Feb. 10 that the latest version of the web browser features a new PUA (Potentially Unwanted Apps) blocking feature that may block some illicit cryptocurrency mining malware. When asked about whether Microsoft plans to protect Edge users from illicit cryptocurrency miners, the spokesperson said that “this will be a particular area of focus.” As cryptojacking is increasingly becoming a cybersecurity threat, efforts to tackle the issue are also scaling up. A new cybersecurity feature Cryptojacking is the practice of illicitly …

A Japanese court has demanded a man who infected website visitors with cryptocurrency mining malware face justice — after acquitting him. As local daily news outlet The Mainichi reported on Feb. 7, the Tokyo High Court overturned a previous ruling which cleared the man, who was not named, of any wrongdoing. Visitors “not informed” of malware According to the original indictment, the 32-year-old web designer installed the Coinhive miner on his own website in October 2017. It was active for a month, using visitors’ devices to mine cryptocurrency for his own benefit — a practice known as “cryptojacking.” The man …

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week SEC tells Telegram its crypto is worth less than donuts The United States Securities and Exchange Commission has gotten its claws out as it takes Telegram to task over its offering for Gram tokens. In a feisty memo to the Southern District Court of New York, the regulator rejected the messaging platform’s claims that its …

Interpol has collaborated with cybersecurity firm Trend Micro to reduce cryptojacking affecting MikroTik routers across South-East Asia, according to a Jan. 8 press release. Though the collaboration reduced the number of affected devices by 78 percent, this is unlikely to have made a significant impact on mining hashrate. Cryptojacking is a malicious practice where attackers infect common devices with crypto mining malware, utilizing the victim’s resources to mine cryptocurrency. Cybersecurity firm Trend Micro collaborated with Interpol’s Global Complex for Innovation, based in Singapore, to sanitize MikroTik routers infected with mining malware. As part of the “Operation Goldfish Alpha,” Trend Micro …

Two Russian citizens are being prosecuted for allegedly targeting computers at state organizations to illicitly mine cryptocurrency. The two unnamed individuals purportedly infected the hardware with a program that mines cryptocurrency via a web browser, local media agency Tass reported on Dec. 16. One of the suspects, a resident of the city of Kurgan, is reported to have created an extensive botnet to infect computers across various regions of the country. The second suspect reportedly focused his mining operations on hardware at the state water utility JSC Rostovvodokanal. Mining can use up to 80% of targets’ processing power, official warns …

A group of hackers has launched a new cryptojacking campaign on Nov. 24, scanning as many as 59,000 IP networks to find Docker platforms that have API endpoints exposed online, business technology publication ZDNet reports Nov. 26. According to the report, the campaign is targeting vulnerable Docker instances in order to deploy crypto-malware to generate funds for the hacking group by mining Monero (XMR). The mass scanning issue was first discovered by American internet security firm Bad Packets LLC on Nov. 25. Troy Mursch, chief research officer and co-founder of Bad Packets LLC, said that exploit activity targeting exposed Docker …

Two threat analysts recently stumbled upon new Linux malware that keeps its cryptocurrency mining operations hidden. On Sept. 16, Augusto Remillano II and Jakub Urbanec revealed in a post on Trend Micro, a security intelligence blog, that they found new Linux malware. According to the analysts, this malware is particularly notable because of the way it loads malicious kernel modules to hide its cryptocurrency mining operations. Malware provides hackers full access to infected machine The analysts revealed that Skidmap masks its cryptocurrency mining by utilizing a rootkit, which is a program that installs and executes code on a system without …

Chinese authorities arrested fifteen men suspected of corrupting an internet café administrator to mine cryptocurrency. Local crypto industry news outlet 8BTC reported on Sept. 3 that police in Henyang, a city in south central China’s Hunan province, arrested the man for cryptojacking. Over 9,000 computer administrators were reportedly involved in helping the unauthorized mining operation. A profitable endeavor The cryptocurrency mined by the suspects in the four months ending in July has been sold for over a hundred million yuan (about $14 million). Local police received a report suggesting that many local Internet cafes were running cryptojacking malware. The findings …

Cybersecurity company McAfee Labs has released its August 2019 threat report, which notes an increase in cryptojacking campaigns and ransomware attacks in Q1 2019. Cryptojacking on the rise McAfee Labs posted their report on the company’s website on Aug. 28. According to the report, crypto jacking — installing and running a cryptocurrency miner without user permission — has been on the rise, with a 29% increase in crypto jacking campaigns in Q1 2019. Additionally, the company discovered new malware families for both Microsoft Windows and Apple users. One crypto jacking campaign they discovered was PsMiner — a crypto jacker for …