Beware! Your Router Could Be Infected with Crypto Malware

By Swati Kishore

New research has revealed that hundreds of thousands of routers are secretively mining digital currencies as a result of clever cryptojacking.

Hackers are out for your computers! Cryptojacking incidents are on the rise with hackers cleverly placing programs on computers. These small programs quietly mine cryptocurrencies on infected computers. Interestingly, the code of the programs does not damage the computer, but it does make the computer work harder.

The mining codes are smartly designed so it can become really hard to determine whether such a malware is running on your computer or not. A new study has revealed that the problem is reaching new heights as cryptojackers are attacking even hardware routers.

VriesHD conducted research, and it revealed that as much as 400,000 cases of routers being hijacked secretly for crypto mining have come to the fore. Interestingly, hackers are specifically targeting routers manufactured by the Latvian company, MicroTik. Another interesting revelation is that while most of these cryptojacking incidents are taking place in Brazil, there have been reports of such malware infections being recorded from across the world from countries such as the United Kingdom.

Fortunately, it has come to light that the infection can be fixed very quickly. Manufacturers of hardware have responded to the situation swiftly by issuing firmware patches. This firmware is designed to close the loopholes in the hardware devices, thereby eradicating the potential issue of cryptojacking. The firmware patches were initially released in November 2018, and since then more and more routers are  activated every week.

The epidemic of cryptojacking has made headlines through most of the 2018. As a computer user, it is important that you keep your security software upgraded. If you feel that your idle machine is working harder, then it is a good idea that you run a scan to see if you’ve become the victim of malware.