AhnLab reveals the First Half Analysis of Cryptocurrency Malware

The report included a comparison of CoinMiner usage, expansion of CoinMiner to enterprise and smartphone users.

FREMONT, CA: AhnLab released the cyber threat analysis of cryptocurrency malware known as CoinMiner. The report highlighted the significant trends that took place during the first half of 2019.

The discovery analysis mentioned that there was a reduction in the usage of CoinMine as compared to last year. Although there was a dip in the graph, the CoinMiner became successful in expanding its influence on smartphone and enterprise end-users. 

The analysis included that the first half of 2019, AhnLab grabbed a total of 1.22 million CoinMiner samples. It consists of the variants of existing ones. When compared with 1.87 million, which was found during the previous year, there was a significant decrease of 35 percent. Due to the reduction of malware samples, the drop in the number of infectious was observed by 90 percent.

 Established in 1995, AhnLab is one of the best in cyber threat analysis. The company delivers comprehensive protection for endpoints, network, transaction, and essential services.

Private companies like security companies and public firms have lowered the chance of infection by quickly responding to the new CoinMiner. Also, the overall decrease in profitability of CoinMiner might have played a significant role, regardless of the rising cryptocurrency value. 

While observing the decrease in the number of samples and infections, the company extended its objective from PCs to smartphones and enterprise servers.

CoinMiner disguised itself as a popular mobile game and virtual currency wallet to target smartphone users. And as for the enterprise users, CoinMiner was installed as high-performance server equipment by operating server vulnerabilities. Along with the traditional distribution using e-mails, CoinMiner leverages the drive-by-mining technique to hack vulnerable websites and distribute malware to website visitors.

To stop damages reported from CoinMiner attacks,  it is recommended to not install programs and applications from unknown sources. Also, it is mandatory to update and apply security patches for OS, IE, Chrome, Firefox, and even in office software.

"Our ability to comprehend the various aspects of security in a comprehensive way is what differentiates us from other players in the security," says Kwon chi-Jung, the CEO of AhnLab.  APAC CIO Outlook has recognized AhnLab as one of its Top 25 Managed Service Providers 2018.

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