Beware! Number of hidden mining programs worldwide skyrockets

20 ноября 2022
Kaspersky Lab experts detected more than 150 thousand new modifications of cryptominers in the third quarter of 2022. This is three times more than during the same period last year. 

A person may encounter with miners on sites that distribute pirated content - movies, music, games and various programs. Also, criminals use open vulnerabilities. According to Kaspersky Lab, almost every sixth attack involving exploitation of well-known vulnerabilities also involved a miner infection.  While in the first half of the year, backdoors and ransomware were more likely to spread through vulnerabilities, but in the third quarter, ransomware and miners were more prevalent. 

"A mining Trojan is a program that uses the power of computers or smartphones to generate cryptocurrency without the owners' knowledge, that is, covertly. Such software can stay on a device for a long time and until a certain moment does not manifest itself in any way. At the same time, mining is a very resource-intensive process. It significantly loads the processor and video card, and as a result, the computer begins to slow down. The additional load can lead to increased power consumption and premature device failure," said Andrei Ivanov, a Kaspersky Lab cybersecurity expert.

To protect against cryptominers, Kaspersky Lab recommends: don't download programs from suspicious sites; use official versions of programs; install a security solution; update applications and operating systems on all devices in a timely manner, so that their vulnerabilities could not be exploited by criminals.