Monero Combat Cryptocurrency Mining Malware by Creating Awareness

Malware and ransomware have caused trouble to the internet users since long, and the decentralised cryptocurrency could not escape the predators. Cryptojacking is another troublesome way to influence the crypto enthusiasts, Cryptojacking is a form of cyber attack in which a hacker hijacks a target’s processing power to mine cryptocurrency on the hacker’s behalf. Cryptojacking has frequently gained popularity among people looking for illegal and unfair means to extract money from targets in the form of cryptocurrency. However complex these may be right education can prove to be efficient to deal with them. NSA’s hacking tools revealed, Additionally for 2018 so far, illegal cryptojacking is up a shocking 459%.

Monero (XMR), an open-source cryptocurrency created in April 2014 that focuses on fungibility and decentralisation. Monero association has taken an initiative in which they aim to educate users on cleaning up crypto-jacking malware and ransomware. The cryptojacking attacks are new to internet users and may be challenging to identify education may play a key role in increasing awareness that will evade the security breaches.

On behalf of Monero, director of the Malware Response Workgroup, Justin Ehrenhofer made clear that Monero did not influence with cryptojacking and made clear that:

“Monero itself and the community aren’t attacking computers, but the computers are attacked with some vulnerability, and the attacker decides to run mining software on the compromised machines,” he said.

He further cleared why hackers are attracted to XMR by stating:

“Attackers like Monero for two reasons: 1) it is private, so they do not need to worry about companies and law enforcement tracing what they do with the Monero after they mine it, and 2) Monero uses a Proof of Work (PoW) algorithm that is CPU and GPU-friendly; thus, the infected machines are competitive. These two components are increasingly distinguishing factors for why attackers choose to mine Monero over other cryptocurrencies.”

It is not rocket science to use crypto in malware as Bitcoin, and other cryptocurrencies have also been altered similarly but XMR’s, privacy features make it different from the league.

The foundation according to Ehrenhofer was formed to help victims, he stated, “We created this workgroup to help the victims of these mining/ransomware attacks, who often have no idea what Monero, mining, and cryptocurrencies are… the increased prevalence of Monero-related malware prompted the formation of the workgroup.”