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A cryptojacking attack has forced St. Francis Xavier University to temporarily shut down its computer network systems. The university reports that the cyberattackers attempted to use the school’s computers resources to collect digital currency.

What are cryptomining and cryptojacking?

Cryptomining is the use of computer resources to collect cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin. The act of doing this is entirely legal, and many people voluntarily use their computers to do so.

However, cryptojacking is the illegal act of installing malicious software on unsuspecting victims and using their computers’ resources to cryptomine without their consent. In cryptojacking attacks, the currency earned is then sent back to the attacker.

Risks and consequences of cryptojacking attacks include the following:

  • Slow-down of normal computer functioning
  • Overheating of computer graphics, processor, or memory due to overuse

There are many ways that a computer can become infected with cryptojacking malware. For instance, they can be transmitted through malicious email attachments. The DDE Exploit is an example of this, and this malware is passed through an infected Microsoft Word document.

Next, cryptojacking malware can also attach itself to your computer through malicious websites. For instance, Coinhive is a cryptomalware that can enter your computer through unprotected websites. Once it infects a pc, it then uses its resources to collect the cryptocurrency called Monero.

Finally, cryptomining malware can enter your computer though compromised cloud services. A recent incident involved numerous large organizations such as Aviva and Gemalto being infected with mining software due to cloud accounts lacking password protection.

 

How to protect yourself:

There are any steps that you can take to protect your organization’s network against cryptomining attacks. Firstly, you can ensure that your employees are educated in spotting malicious links and files in suspicious emails. By minimizing the human error in the equation, you will be able to reduce the risk of infection. Next, ensure that your email service has antivirus and antispam installed. These software use databases of known malicious websites and automatically block potentially harmful emails.

Ensure that your organization’s computers are running up-to-date antivirus software that blocks cryptomining programs. Finally, ensure that you constantly monitor network activity in your organization. This allows for anomalies to be spotted quicker.

Don’t fall victim to cryptomining attacks. Contact GigE at 888 366 4443 to ensure that your sensitive data is backed-up and protected.

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]]> 6182 How To Protect Your Business Against Cryptojacking https://gige.ca/how-to-protect-your-business-against-cryptojacking Tue, 08 May 2018 17:49:26 +0000 http://gige.ca/?p=5632 The post How To Protect Your Business Against Cryptojacking appeared first on GIGE IT Solutions: IT Services Mississauga.

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Crypto Currency Mining

How To Protect Your Business Against Cryptojacking

With the advancement in technology to ease up the business, there has been an increase in the number of cyber attacks as well. Cryptojacking is one of the forms of cyber attack in which a hacker uses the computing power of a target to mine cryptocurrency. In this process, the attackers try to take advantage of the security loopholes in a business’ I.T. infrastructure. One such example according to RedLock in the attack on the cloud account of Tesla company, to mine for Monero, a cryptocurrency similar to Bitcoin.

Cryptocurrency mining is a process by which transactions are verified. It’s also a process by which a new crypto coin is released. Miners, those who allow their computers to be used for cryptocurrency mining, are compensated for the computer and electricity usage.

Attackers use following flaws or methods to mine the cryptocurrency by stealing the computing resources of businesses:

  1. No Password Protection

This is the most basic flaw in I.T. Security, having no password protection in place is sort of an open invitation for attackers. As per the report from RedLock, both Tesla and Aviva were hacked as they were both using Kubernetes administration consoles that were accessible over the internet without any password protection. Kubernetes is an open-sourced tool used to control the computing resources needed to run the apps of an organization.

  1. EternalBlue Exploit

May 2017, hundreds and thousands of computers were under the attack of WannaCry ransomware. A few people know that even before this WannaCry attack, there was another malware “Adylkuzz” that used the same EternalBlue vulnerability. This malware was used to mine cryptocurrency Monero, which according to Proofpoint appeared as early as April 24, 2017. Symptoms of the Adylkuzz cyber attack include loss of access to shared Windows resources and degradation of server and PC performance.

  1. Browser-Based Cryptojacking

In browser-based cryptojacking, a cryptocurrency mining code is embedded into a website, and site visitors run the mining code via their browser. Browser-based cryptojacking has been around since 2011. Slow computer performance and general unresponsiveness when browsing the web are signs that your organization’s computers are silently mining Monero and enriching the hackers.

There a few ways to keep your business safe from cryptojacking:

  1. Monitor Network Traffic

To protect your cloud account from cryptojacking, monitor the network traffic. “By monitoring network traffic and correlating it with configuration data, Tesla could have detected suspicious network traffic being generated by the compromised Kubernetes pod,” RedLock said.

  1. Keep Your Organization’s Server Operating System (OS) Up-to-Date

Installing Microsoft’s March 14, 2017 security update, also known as the MS17-010 update, is an effective means to block Adylkuzz cryptocurrency mining malware from infecting your organization’s physical server. The MS17-010 update fixes the EternalBlue, the security vulnerability exploited by Adylkuzz.

  1. Get a Quality Cryptocurrency Mining Security Solution

To prevent cryptojacking, get a quality cryptocurrency mining security solution. This security solution should be able to detect and block all types of cryptocurrency mining activities, whether they are browser-based or file-based.

At GigE, we offer cybersecurity services that’ll protect your organization’s cloud account and physical servers from cyber attacks like cryptojacking. Call +1 (888) 366-4443 to schedule and appointment or more detailed information on our services.

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