Hacker gangs are raking in millions of dollars using a technique called cryptojacking. It works by illicitly harnessing the computer power of thousands of people to聽mine cryptocurrency without them knowing.
Guillermo Suarez-Tangil at King鈥檚 College London and Sergio Pastrana at Madrid鈥檚 Carlos III University analysed more than 4.4 million malware samples that were used for cryptojacking between 2007 and 2018.
The pair found cryptojacking had generated an estimated $57 million worldwide since 2007, with the top-earning gang minting $18 million worth of cryptocurrency since June 2016. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just the tip of the iceberg,鈥� says Suarez-Tangil.
Advertisement
Overall 58 per cent of all illegally-obtained cryptocurrency came from just 10 campaigns. The pair also uncovered an illicit trade in miners, where code聽for cryptojacking could be bought for as little as $35 on underground forums.
Read more: How to think about鈥� The blockchain
Cryptojacking malware generates a cryptocurrency called monero. It is preferred to other cryptocurrencies, such as bitcoin, because it has privacy guarantees that make it easier to cash out, says Marie Vasek at the University of New Mexico.
While at first glance cryptojacking may look like a victimless crime 鈥� those whose resources are hijacked never owned the currency in the first place 鈥� it hogs computing power and defrauds victims. There is also a risk that in the future hackers will move from targeting home computers and phones to larger bits of electronic infrastructure, such as the computers that control power plants, says Alan Woodward at the University of Surrey.
One technique hackers use is to install cryptojacking code onto websites, so that when someone visits a page their browser runs it in the background. It鈥檚 possible to defend against this by installing an ad-blocker, which stops many different types of code on websites from running unless given permission from the user.
Cryptojacking keeps growing each year and shows no signs of slowing. 鈥淭he problem is going to stay for quite a while,鈥� says Suarez-Tangil.
Reference: arXiv,
