The systems at the Russian state departments were hacked with malicious cryptomining software without getting noticed. Nikolai Murashov, the deputy head of the National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents (FSB), stated the harsh reality at Infoforum 2020 conference according to Russian newspaper Kommersant.
Ransomware is out, cryptomining is in
Murashov said that they identified similar cases of infection in 2019. FSB’s foundings included but not limited to cryptomining incidents in Russian government organizations and businesses.
The attackers infected systems with malicious software that can mine cryptocurrency and this happened without being noticed according to Murashov.
Murashov also said that in last year, these kind of software was very popular amongst cybercriminals. It presented an exciting resource, since cryptocurrency mining helped them earn money without having to confront anyone for ransom etc.
The hackers have occupied the niche of ransomware viruses mostly and sometimes mining functions were added to the existing malware.
Recent cryptomining malware can use up to 80% of system resources
Hidden cryptomining functions embedded in the site code can use up to 80% of the resources of the target computer. And the visitors don’t notice anything, if they don’t have an antivirus software or system that can detect these malware.
In addition to turning these resources for their own gain, the targeted systems’ performance are reduced significantly and this also slows down the businesses or government functions.
According to Murashov, in 2019, cryptographic viruses or ransomware software has reduced activity. These software can encrypt data on a computer for demanding a ransom. Instead of this niche, the malware, which seized resources for cryptocurrency mining took off.
