Cryptojackers, trojanised crypto-currency miners, continue to spread across computers globally, while also becoming stealthier and increasingly avoiding detection.
The new analysis was published by Microsoft’s 365 Defender Research Team.
The technical write up reads: “In the past several months, Microsoft Defender Antivirus detected cryptojackers on hundreds of thousands of devices every month.”
Cryptojackers are using different tactics to force a device to mine for cryptocurrency without a user’s knowledge or consent, the report found. The most common ones are potentially unwanted applications (PUAs) or malicious executable files placed on the devices and using system resources to mine cryptocurrencies.
As well as this, Microsoft added that the tools are often created using the Javascript programming language and can infiltrate systems via browser. They warned that some cryptojackers are fileless and, in this case, perform mining in a device’s memory and achieve persistence by misusing legitimate tools and LOLBins.
