Last year, Ransomeware such as Wannacry devastated the globe. Although Ransomeware had existed as a threat long before 2017, the vast infection rate and the damage rate quickly brought every security company to release new patches against the new high level threat. Ironically, Ransomeware had very close activation method as encryption technology, encryption & decryption skill had become one of the hottest topic of IT. A year has passed and the research shows the next ‘NEW’ threat is Cryptomining malware; also known as Cryptojacking. While Ransomeware had become the news of the year, every legal institution persistently tracked its distributor. This lead the rate of Ransomeware to drop dramatically. However, with the advanced technology of encryption and increasing value of crypto currency, Cryptojacking had become the No.1 threat. Unlike Ransomeware, Cryptojacking doesn’t require its victim to react. At least with Ransomeware, the victims had a choice. To pay the price for the encrypted data or not. This means the attacker had to wait until the victims respond. Cryptojacking on the other hand, continues to use the victims CPU to mine crypto currency such as Monero. This browser is hidden, so it is important to find whether your CPU is being used by checking task manager. Here are some of the ways to respond against Cryptojacking.
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- All system and application needed to be updated with latest patch: This can prevent most of the web threats including Cryptojacking, but keeping your system with latest patch is difficult. It’s also vulnerable to Zero day attack or unknown threats.
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- Anti-Bot: Almost every malware uses Command and Control(CnC). Anti-bot can detect the CnC traffic and block its activity.
- Using Cryptojacking Blocker: By adding Cryptojacking Blocker into your browser, you can detect unintentional activity in your browser. You can also use AD blocker to prevent infection as well. However, Cryptojacking is evolving every second, getting difficult to detect every day.
