Ransomware attacks are the favorite tool of hackers and fraudsters to extort money from their victims. But Microsoft reports that ransomware has lost the top spot, giving the lead to another genre attacks: cryptojacking.
In the Microsoft security blog, he states how the scope of cyber attacks has changed over the years.
Microsoft explains that cryptojacking has until now been nothing more than a nuisance, a relatively benign activity that simply drained the resources of the hacked machineof me. But now, under the regime of increased cryptocurrency acceptance, it has taken off in recent months. Microsfot claims that cryptojacking has overtaken ransomware as preferred by hackers.
According to a recent survey by Avira Protection Labs, there was a 53% increase in mining malware attacks in Q4 2020 compared to Q2020 XNUMX.
To help combat this growing threat, the company uses Intel Threat detection Technology (TDT) with Microsoft Defender for Endpoint as a weapon to detect and remove these annoying threats.
What are Cryptojacking and Ransomware Attacks?
If you scratch your head about what ransomware is and what cryptojacking is, let's take a closer look and see why hackers have changed their habit.
Hackers love to use any of these types of attacks because they make money right away. Ransomware, the former king of malware, did this by locking in the victim's computer and refusing to unlock it until the victim paid.
Ransomware was effective but had weaknesses. The hacker should have been able to deliver a ransom message and persuade the victim to pay.
As cryptocurrency trafficking increases, hackers are moving to a job necessary for cryptocurrency trading called mining. So a hacker passes a program on the victim's computer and uses the resources of his machine to extract.
Compared to ransomware, cryptojacking is much more secure. While ransomware terminates the victim's computer and demands payment, cryptojacking depletes the victim's computer resources without immediately revealing its presence.
Therefore, this new wave of malware is much more difficult to detect and eliminate. It seems that cryptocurrencies have entered our lives for good and that is why cryptojacking has come to stay.
