Cryptojacking Activity Decreased for the First Time Since 2018, Says Intelligence Report

Cryptojacking activity seems to be losing momentum, specifically types that mine monero, as a recent report unveiled a slowdown in the illicit crypto-mining activities in the cloud. A threat intelligence firm compiled the results.

Report Focused on Cryptojacking Incidents With Monero

According to Unit 42 in their “Cloud Thread Report,” cryptojacking attacks have been decreasing for the first time since 2018 – the year when the firm started to trace illicit mining activities. But the study put its focus specifically on monero (XMR).

Threat actors in cryptojacking attacks mainly mine the privacy cryptocurrency, which has been well-document in other intelligence firms’ research.

Per the Unit 42 report, from December 2020 to February 2021, only 17% of organizations worldwide with cloud-based infrastructure had cryptojacking activity. It represents a decline compared to the figure from July to September 2020, where 23% of the firms reported such incidents.

Although the pandemic boosted authorized crypto-mining activity, the latest findings suggest that this is the first recorded drop in cryptojacking incidents since Unit 42 began tracking such attacks in 2018.

Companies Are Lacking Enough Security Measures to Prevent Attacks

However, Unit 42 warns that companies are not taking enough security measures to prevent such attacks on their cloud infrastructures:

Organizations have neglected to invest in the cloud governance and automated security controls necessary to ensure that their workloads remain secure as they move to the cloud. In turn, they have created serious business risks such as exposing unencrypted sensitive data to the internet and inviting breaches by leaving insecure ports open. While our Unit 42 Cloud Threat Reports in 2020 identified similar problems, the numerous crises unleashed by the COVID-19 pandemic have made the situation more challenging and widespread.

Still, the cyber intelligence firm raised red flags on the increasing number of other cyberattacks not related to the crypto sphere. These incidents are related to flaws also spotted on cloud infrastructures.

As of press time, according to markets.Bitcoin.com data, XMR is exchanging hands at $269.32, up 0.15% on the day, with a market capitalization of $4.82 billion.