Cyber scammers have increased their use of hidden mining due to increased law enforcement activity and heavy regulation

Over the past 12 months, the number of hidden mining (cryptojacking) cases worldwide has increased by 399%. This is according to data from the SonicWall report.

Cybercriminals are increasingly resorting to remote hacking of servers. And cryptocurrency mining devices. Recent data suggests that cybercriminals have become more likely to use this method due to increased law enforcement activity and strict regulation.

Hidden mining, or cryptojacking, is a cybercrime involving the unauthorized use of someone else’s devices (computers, smartphones, tablets, or servers) to mine cryptocurrency. It is often conducted through vulnerabilities in mobile apps, web browsers and their permissions and remains unnoticed by the victim.

In the UK, cryptojacking incidents have increased by 479% since 2022. In the US, there were 214 million such attacks in 2023 alone. And that’s a 340% increase from the year before.

Our experts note that in June, Google Cloud launched a program to compensate customers for up to $1 million in losses from hidden mining. If an attacker bypasses the cloud service’s built-in defenses. Users with special subscriptions will be able to get compensation for their losses. A subscription to Security Command Center Premium includes specialized hidden mining detection capabilities built into the Google Cloud infrastructure. The service scans virtual machine memory for malware. It can also detect compromised identities. And which allow attackers to access cloud accounts and quickly inject malware.

Satoshi Nakamoto mined a Bitcoin genesis block on January 3, 2009

Bitcoin turned 14 years old. January 3, 2009 can be considered the real birthday of Bitcoin. That’s when the genesis block was mined with the date and a short excerpt from The Times article: “The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks”.

On October 31, 2008, the creator of Bitcoin, known as Satoshi Nakamoto, published a white paper. Titled “Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System. However, the BTC network did not actually work until three months later, when Satoshi mined the first block.

The genesis block was mined on a small server in Helsinki. The reward for mining it was 50 BTC. The first transaction on the BTC network took place a few days later. On January 12, 2009, 10 BTC from Satoshi Nakamoto were sent to developer Hal Finney in Block 170.

Nine months later, on October 5, Bitcoin appeared on the New Liberty Standart exchange. Our experts note that for $ 1 you could buy 1,309 BTC (now their price is $21 million).

On February 9, 2011, BTC for the first time equaled in value to the U.S. dollar. And on April 16 of the same year a major publication – Time magazine published an article about Bitcoin, for the first time about the new asset. The currency reached a total capitalization of $10 million.

Since then, Bitcoin has experienced several ups and downs. It reached its peak in November 2021, rising to $69,000. In 2022, global economic problems and several major bankruptcies in the industry led to a significant decline in cryptocurrency rates and a prolonged crypto winter.

The asset currently has a market capitalization of $322 billion and a daily trading volume of $13 billion. Bitcoin’s stake in a crypto market is 38.2%.

Hidden mining threat (CryptoJacking) reached a record level in first half of 2022: number of detected attacks raised to 66.7 million, 30% more than in first six months of 2021

Hidden mining or CryptoJacking is a cybercrime. It involves unauthorized use of devices (computers, smartphones, tablets or servers) by hackers to mine cryptocurrency. Hidden mining is often done through security exploits in mobile apps. As well as web browsers and goes unnoticed by victims.

Cyber security company SonicWall recorded 45.1 million attacks in the first quarter. This is their highest number in their history of monitoring. However, in Q2 there were half as many cases – 21.6 million. According to a study, falling prices for cryptocurrencies may be a reason for this. According to experts’ forecast, the “summer recession of CryptoJacking” will continue in Q3 of this year. But attacks will peak again in Q4.

What drives growth of hidden mining and why it is dangerous

Two factors are responsible for general growth in the number of hidden mining incidents. First factor is a critical vulnerability in the Log4j Java library. It was found in 2021. It allows hackers to gain unauthorized access to hundreds of users’ apps remotely around world. In addition, Hidden Mining is an attack with less risk for scammers. Than extortion, because victims of scammers often do not know that their computers or networks are being used. As a result, cybercriminals have less chance of being detected. Normal users see their devices running slower. But it’s hard to connect this to criminal activity.

At least one extortion group has already publicly announced its intentions to switch to hidden mining. And if they do, it won’t be the first time cryptojacking has replaced extortion software.

The number of attacks on government, health care, and education sectors decreased by 78%, 87%, and 96%, respectively. However, cases of hidden mining in financial industry increased by 269%, and in retail by 63%.

Earlier, FBI reported that American investors who used fake crypto-applications and sites lost at least $42.7 million. According to FBI, 244 people were victims of fraudsters who create copies of web pages and mobile wallets of famous companies.

Our Crypto-Upvotes experts warn you to be careful when visiting unknown sites. Or when installing applications on your devices. Hidden mining is a real risk that you could lose your money.