{"id":12221,"date":"2018-07-27T08:00:03","date_gmt":"2018-07-27T14:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/?p=12221"},"modified":"2018-08-28T23:55:23","modified_gmt":"2018-08-29T05:55:23","slug":"hackers-targeting-bitcoins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/business-2\/hackers-targeting-bitcoins.html","title":{"rendered":"Hackers Targeting Bitcoins"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Hackers<\/a>
Hackers make use of the victims’ processing power, because that is what they need to “mine” virtual currencies<\/figcaption><\/figure>Hackers seem to find a way to commit fraud with every new technology that comes along. Now it’s bitcoin, a virtual currency that is increasing in popularity.<\/p>\n

Malicious hardware has been showing up on people’s handsets, TVs and smart fridges to facilitate their “crypto-jacking.” The effects for both individuals and companies has been severe. Depending on the severity of the attack, it may seem the losses are too small to be noticed, but over a period of weeks or months, the loss can be great.<\/p>\n

Some companies see a huge increase in their power bills as the hackers do their thing, according to Threat Intelligence Group Manager for Checkpoint, a watchdog organization.<\/p>\n

Hackers make use of the victims’ processing power, because that is what they need to “mine” virtual currencies. Computers make the complex calculations that verify a running ledger of all transactions in virtual currencies around the world. Besides installing malicious software, the fraudsters also can work through a web browser, latching onto the victim’s computer processing power to mine<\/p>\n

digital currencies while the user is on the site. When the victim switches, the mining ends. <\/p>\n

Industry experts first identified crypto-jacking as a threat in 2017, when virtual currency prices were rushing to record highs. <\/p>\n

At that time, the price of bitcoin, the most widely used of the virtual currencies, increased six-fold from September to December. It has continued to increase.<\/p>\n

The hackers were ready. The first big instance of this type of theft was in September, centered on Coinhive, a legitimate business that allowed website owners to make money by allowing customers to mine their v-currency instead of relying on advertising income. The frauds were almost first in line to use the service.<\/p>\n

Monero is their favorite target, according to industry researchers. They estimate that more than 5 percent of Monero is mined through crypto-jacking, with losses of more than $150 million dollars and that doesn’t take into account mining that occurs through browsers. The thieves try to infect as many devices as possible, a method dubbed “Spray and Pray.”<\/p>\n

The level of sophistication among the hackers increases with each new wrinkle in virtual currency and victims are reacting by adding protections to their equipment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hackers seem to find a way to commit fraud with every new technology that comes along. Now it’s bitcoin, a virtual currency that is increasing in popularity. Malicious hardware has been showing up on people’s handsets, TVs and smart fridges to facilitate their “crypto-jacking.” The effects for both individuals and companies has been severe. Depending […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":53,"featured_media":12222,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[780,557,779,724,763],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12221"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/53"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12221"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12223,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12221\/revisions\/12223"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12222"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coolchecks.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}