Ransomware attacks are the favorite tool of hackers and fraudsters to extract money from their victims. But Microsoft says ransomware has lost ground, giving primacy to another type of attack: cryptojacking.
In Microsoft's security blog, it mentions how the scope of online attacks has changed over the years.
Microsoft explains that cryptojacking until now was nothing more than a nuisance, a relatively benign activity, that simply depleted the resources of the compromised machine. But now, under the regime of increased acceptance of cryptocurrencies, it has taken off in recent months. Microsfot claims that cryptojacking took precedence over ransomware, preferred by hackers.
According to a recent survey by Avira Protection Labs, there was a 53% increase in malware attacks for mining in the fourth quarter of 4 compared to the third quarter of 2020.
To help combat this growing threat, the company is using 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 trading increases, hackers are moving towards a task essential to cryptocurrency transactions called mining . A hacker passes a program onto a victim's computer and uses the victim's machine's resources to mine.
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.
Dimitris hates Mondays...
