Cryptojacking has emerged as one of the most insidious cyber threats in the digital age. Cryptojacking attacks secretly exploit a victim’s computing power to mine cryptocurrency, often without their knowledge, using cryptojacking scripts or cryptomining malware. Unlike ransomware, which directly disrupts operations by locking systems or data, crypto malware silently drains processing resources, slows performance, and inflates energy costs. The impact can be even more severe for businesses, ranging from reduced operational efficiency to compromised customer trust. Understanding cryptojacking, how crypto malware works and the risks it poses to your digital assets is essential for safeguarding your business from these covert cyber threats.
What Is Cryptocurrency?
Cryptocurrency has become mainstream. As of late 2024, the global cryptocurrency market capitalization reached an all-time high valuation of $3.48 trillion. While questions about the stability and longevity of cryptocurrency will inevitably persist—even mainstream currencies like Bitcoin continue to experience price volatility—the popularity and notoriety of crypto is undeniable.
What Is Cryptojacking?
Unfortunately, as cryptocurrency continues to move mainstream crypto mining, the process of verifying transactions to earn cryptocurrency by solving extremely complex math problems has also become more profitable. Cryptomining is especially profitable for threat actors, who use illicit miners to steal the enormous data processing capacity and energy resources that it requires.
As with many other cybercrimes, the key to crypto mining, also called cryptojacking, is malware. Cryptojacking malware can remain hidden within your business network servers, web applications, and cloud containers, allowing it to subjugate your IT assets by hijacking your processing and electrical power.
What is crypto mining, and how does it put your digital assets at risk
As with many other attack vectors, crypto mining isn’t inherently malicious. Cryptomining is the process of verifying cryptocurrency transactions and adding them to the blockchain ledger to earn cryptocurrency as a reward. Inevitably, threat actors have found ways to circumvent this process and hijack users’ devices without their consent or knowledge to reap all the rewards of crypto mining without investing in the necessary resources.
What Does Cryptomining Malware Mean for Your Business?
Cryptocurrency mining malware became commonplace by mid-2018, following Bitcon’s sudden rise to $20,000, and at the time, browser-based crypto miners outpaced even ransomware, accounting for 35% of online threats. However, the risk of crypto-malware failed to gain the same notoriety as other prominent cyberattacks, such as ransomware, which is also propagated via malware, for several reasons:
- It’s not readily visible and hard to find. Unlike malware-based ransomware or ransom distributed denial of service (RDDoS) threats, which have to announce themselves to earn money, cryptojacking malware succeeds by remaining invisible and undetected.
- It steals resources, not data. Cryptomining malware doesn’t lock out users, encrypt files, or flood your servers. In general, the effects of first-generation crypto mining malware were reduced processing power, resulting in slower operations and increased power consumption, boosting your electric bill, and sometimes overheating.
Over time, cryptomining malware has evolved, becoming harder to detect as the number of infections increases. In Q4 2020, crypto mining malware surged by 53%, and that’s just detections. Today’s cryptocurrency mining malware is capable of evading detection and infecting a wide range of devices to threaten an ever-growing range of digital assets, including Linux machines, web apps and cloud containers, and Internet of Things (IoT) devices.
As crypto malware continues to evolve, the risks are no longer just diminished processing power and stolen electricity. For example, worm-like variants can propagate and infect additional assets, or your assets can be commandeered into a botnet for crypto mining and DDoS attacks.
The bottom line? You should be aware of the risks associated with crypto mining malware and take the appropriate preventative steps to protect your business.
Attack vectors: How crypto mining malware spreads
One of the challenges of countering crypto mining malware is the sheer variety of attack vectors and delivery methods targeting both devices and cloud applications:
- Attacks targeting open or misconfigured APIs, including web applications with an open port, containers with an exposed API, and hosts with an open port.
- Phishing and spear phishing emails with a malicious link that runs code to place a crypto mining script on the device.
- Malicious websites with code that installs malware when clicked by an unsuspecting user.
- Infected applications, files, or browser extensions that install crypto mining malware when downloaded by users.
- Diversionary DDoS attacks dominate the attention of IT security teams, allowing threat actors to insert malware into a server.
- DNS hijacking attacks redirect users to a malicious site, either by poisoning your DNS cache or by taking over a legitimate website your users frequent.
Since cryptocurrency mining malware is designed to go undetected, be on the lookout for indirect evidence, such as increases in processor utilization, non-seasonal increases in electricity consumption, or suspicious patterns in network traffic.
How to prevent crypto mining malware
While there is no magic bullet to prevent crypto-malware from infecting your assets, there are steps your business can take to avoid an infection. The most effective approach is a comprehensive strategy that utilizes a variety of protective tools and practices—something commonly referred to as defense in depth—including some best practices:
- Employ a web application firewall to protect web apps
- Use a recursive DNS service that includes a DNS firewall
- Make sure you have comprehensive DDoS protection
- Be ready to identify and counter a DNS hijack attempt
- Implement a rigorous phishing defense program, including user education
- Plan and control software patches, updates, and fixes for immediate, secure implementation
- Conduct vulnerability and penetration testing using an outside agent
How Vercara can help
The best security posture layers together defenses that work in tandem to protect your assets from being commandeered by crypto mining malware. The experts at Vercara can help with four essential services to strengthen your defenses.
Web application protection
UltraWAF offers cloud-based protection for your digital assets wherever they are hosted. It defends against a multitude of threats, including cryptojacking attacks, helping maintain the integrity and performance of customer web applications. This allows security teams to mitigate or remove underlying threats. Reducing malicious traffic and bot activities also contributes to a smoother user experience.
Proactive DNS security
Vercara’s UltraDNS Detection and Response (UltraDDR) is the industry’s leading protective DNS solution that preempts attacks. UltraDDR can block communication between DNS-reliant cryptocurrency mining malware and external command and control (C&C) servers or botnets. It also helps prevent malware from entering your network in the first place by blocking access to malicious and suspect websites.
DDoS detection and prevention
Vercara’s cloud-based DDoS mitigation services are anchored by a massive, global mitigation structure, ensuring that your business receives continuous protection from threats. UltraDDoS Protect scrubs malicious traffic away from your infrastructure, defusing the large, complex attacks that threaten your operational stability.
Professional services to upscale your security posture.
Cyber threats like crypto malware will continue to evolve and present new risks. But you don’t have to be a cybersecurity expert to have expert protection. Vercara can help your IT security team get up to speed quickly with network vulnerability assessments and recommendations, resolve patch/fix issues, plan disaster recovery, and train employees. We can also conduct penetration testing to simulate actual attacks and assess your network readiness.
To learn how Vercara’s suite of solutions can help defend your organization, contact our sales team.
