Security breaches in the cryptocurrency space have been a common phenomenon, with several attacks having occurred over the past couple of months and resulting in the loss of cryptocurrencies worth millions. The latest malware attack in the world of digital assets is ‘Beapy,’ and reports have stated that the malware has been used to hijack China’s enterprises. The purpose behind such hijacking is to illegally mine Monero, reports claim.
The malware takes its core functionalities from the National Security Agency’s [NSA] tricks and fake credentials to latch on to multiple networks and spread around. Symantec, the popular cybersecurity firm, stated,
“This campaign demonstrates that while crypto-jacking has declined in popularity with cyber criminals since its peak at the start of 2018, it is still a focus for some of them, with enterprises now their primary target.”
The malware, first discovered in January 2019, reportedly mines Monero [XMR] faster than CoinHive. Sources confirmed that the machines affected by the malware downloaded ‘XMRig,’ a mining software from the perpetrators’ toolbox. Analysts concluded that hackers used file-based miners like Beapy more than browser miners like Coinhive, because of stark differences in their mining speeds. Alan Neville, a Threat Intelligence Analyst at Symantec, stated,
“We believe that the attackers are mining Monero, as we observed a miner called XMRig being downloaded – this is specific to Monero, The Monero cryptocurrency, which is the cryptocurrency most commonly mined during crypto-jacking attacks, dropped in value by 90 percent in 2018, so it may make sense that miners that can create more cryptocurrency faster are now more popular with cyber criminals.”
Monero is one of the most common victims when it comes to hacks, evidenced by multiple wallet hacks and users getting affected. The cryptocurrency was also in the news recently after Riccardo Spagni gave his views on Bitcoin and Monero’s supply. He spoke about the three different types of designs that would play a part in the supply; inflationary, deflationary and dis-inflationary. He said,
“I think inflationary is always bad for the most part. I think dis-inflationary is a reasonable middle ground that gives you, if you’re not if you’re designing for digital currency and not digital gold then dis-inflationary is not a bad model. it’s the model the Monero users and I don’t think it’s terrible. if you’re designing for digital gold it has to be deflationary.”
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