Cryptocurrency Displaces Ransomware

Criminals in cyberspace are now more focused on hijacking your computer cycles to help them mine cryptocurrency than holding your data hostage. A recent report shows that cyberattacks are now churning out digital currency about four times as often as they try to hold your data ransom.

Ransomware relies upon a time consuming and risky chain of events to invade a computer, encrypt its data then give the owner contact instructions to pay a ransom to get the keys needed to recover their data. Despite several high profile incidents and probably many more that were never disclosed, this approach has lost favor, probably due to the relatively large effort, risk and delays associated with getting payment. A series of public incidents where payment was made but the affected data was never recovered have also made victims less likely to trust that the criminals will actually deliver on the decryption promise.

Cryptocurrency mining, sometimes called cryptojacking, involves more direct methods which can be planted on a compromised web site or other hacker controlled system to perform part of a highly parallelized process to solve the complex calculations that make cryptocurrencies work. The victim is often unaware of the extra software running in their browser. Even when the user becomes aware of something amiss, it may be expressed as little more than a complaint that their computer or web pages are running slower than usual. As a result, compromised systems may run for extended periods without being discovered.