Cryptomining becomes most popular cybercrime malware

In the last six months of 2017, ransomware accounted for 32% of attacks, while malicious cryptominers accounted for 7%. By the first half of 2018, malicious cryptominers had jumped to 32% of attacks while ransomware dropped to 8%.

“Ransomware received a lot of attention in years past, especially thanks to the likes of WannaCry, NotPetya and BadRabbit,” says Skybox Director of Threat Intelligence Marina Kidron and leader of the Research Lab behind the report.

“To some extent, organisations took note and put effective precautions in place, ensuring they had reliable back-ups and even thwarting attackers with decryption programs. So cybercriminals found, in cryptomining, a path of lesser resistance. The recent uptick in value of cryptocurrencies also made this an incredibly profitable attack option.”

Other findings in the report appear to relate to this trend. Internet and mobile vulnerabilities made up nearly a third of all new vulnerabilities published in the first half of 2018. Google Android had by far the most vulnerabilities during that time period, exceeding the tally of the next five most vulnerable vendors combined. Android also logged 200 more vulnerabilities than it did in the second half of 2018. Malicious cryptomining has found an advantage in targeting the app store of the global market leader in mobile devices, with billions of potential targets worldwide.

Browser-based malware is also on the rise. “Out of all software today, web browsers are considered the most prone to malicious attacks,” says Kidron. “They constantly interact with websites and applications that cybercriminals have infected with malware like cryptominers and other threats via the web, which are notoriously difficult to detect. The cryptomining malware could be active as long as the web session is active, and ‘file-less’ cryptominers also can hide from conventional security tools as there’s no download or attachment to analyse.”

No matter the payload, attackers looking to exploit vulnerabilities have more resources than ever. Not only are dark web market places rich with attack tools and services, and criminal forums ripe with information, vulnerabilities themselves have skyrocketed.

New vulnerabilities catalogued by MITRE’s National Vulnerability Database doubled in 2017 over the previous year, and 2018 looks to be on track to shatter even that record. The 2017 surge and continued elevated numbers is largely due to organisational improvements at MITRE and increased security research by vendors and third parties, including vendor sponsored bug bounty programmes.