When the price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is rising quickly, attackers have invented a new threat in order to profit from the boom. So now we are facing a new type of threat when malicious pages try to steal computing capacity from our computers. It is unbelievable but with growing cryptocurrency value, it makes a sense to install JavaScript on pages which will run on many computers and mine cryptocurrency. It is quite a good example of how cybercriminals are able to monetize nearly anything, isn’t it?
It is so trendy and finally so easy to install and setup the script on the page and wait for the profit. Who cares about overloaded computers when processors working for hundred percent? Just imagine your frustration when you are unable to work with a computer with amazing power, can't send an email or open excel sheet in reasonable time because... it is working for someone else. This type of “business” is so attractive that cryptocurrency mining is available as a service. For example Coinhive, a browser-based cryptocurrency JavaScript miner for the Monero Blockchain. Don’t be surprised that it looks like legal page and activity.
Respond with Flowmon
Flowmon can now detect the harmful communication as we developed special detection for this purpose. The new behavioural pattern is distributed automatically to customers’ Flowmon collectors which will show you computers or servers accessing pages and services involved in the mining process. It will help you with resource saving and as the prevention before your IT teams overload when they should investigate overloaded computers. Focus on this trend and discard such bad practice from your network in time.