In Southeast Asia, cryptomining is the highest in terms of attempted attacks blocked by Kaspersky at 8,926,117 in 2020. Detected phishing attempts were at 2,890,825 while ransomware attempts were at 804,513 last year.
Malicious cryptocurrency malware used in cryptomining is being used by cybercriminals to use hardware they don’t own such as smartphones, computers, tablets, and servers. They then harness the processing power of these devices to mine for cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, the prices of which have been skyrocketing.
So if you’re a business owner and your staff are working remotely because of the pandemic yet you find your office power bill unusually high, check your IT backend. There may be cryptominers using your business resources, at your expense.
In Kaspersky’s recent 2020 SMB Threat Report, cryptomining attempts were monitored to have been reduced to 8,926,117 in 2020 from a massive 13, 247,796 detections in 2019.
“We have seen a decrease in miner attacks around the world and the same trend applies to SEA, too. The main factor behind the decreasing number of attacks is the cost of cryptocurrencies which has been declining over the past three years and only recently began to rise sharply in price again,” says Evgeny Lopatin, Malware Analyst Team Lead at Kaspersky.
Kaspersky is advising business owners not to keep their guards down.
“SMBs normally have a relaxed attitude towards information security and so the main damage from cryptomining is expected to be felt by this sector. Cryptocurrencies continue to attract investor and user attention due to the continued spike in its prices so we really caution SMBs not to underestimate the possibility that cryptomining will remain to be a serious cyberthreat. After all, cybercriminals have long realized that infecting servers is more profitable than mining on home users’ computers so SMBs should take this silent threat seriously,” says Yeo Siang Tiong, General Manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky.
