Cryptomining Malware Surged 86% in Q2 2018: McAfee

San Francisco: Continuing its rise from the fourth quarter of last year, cryptocurrency mining malware grew 86 percent in the second quarter of this year, according to a new report from the global cybersecurity firm McAfee Labs. Although less common than ransomware, cryptomining malware has quickly emerged as a factor on the threat landscape, the report said on Tuesday, adding that while cryptomining malware primarily targets PCs, other devices also have become victims.

“A few years ago, we wouldn’t think of Internet routers, video-recording devices and other Internet of Things devices as platforms for crypto mining because their CPU speeds were too insufficient to support such productivity,” said Christiaan Beek, Lead Scientist and Senior Principal Engineer with McAfee Labs Advanced Threat Research team.

The research also showed the continued adaptation of the type of malware vulnerability exploits used in the WannaCry and NotPetya outbreaks of 2017. McAfee saw the exploits from these two high-profile threats repurposed within new malware strains, and newly discovered vulnerability exploits similarly adapted to produce entirely new threats.

New malware samples specifically designed to exploit software vulnerabilities increased by 151 percent in the second quarter of 2018, the findings of the”McAfee Labs Threats Report” showed. (IANS)