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- Cryptocurrencies
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- Industry
- Geography
Potential investors should be aware of the fact that the crypto market is not dangerous due to the volatility and the financial risks that accompany digital assets, but mainly due to the massive number of scams that follows the market. Recent reports suggest that despite the falling value of digital assets, cryptojacking reached record high levels in 2022, and continues to grow extensively even after its massive volatility persists. Cybersecurity company, SonicWall has revealed that global cryptojacking volumes rose by approximately US$66 million by the first half of 2022, as compared to the same period last year.
Cryptojacking is a type of cybercrime in which a hacked computer is used to mine cryptocurrencies. This has led cyber-criminals to develop and distribute crypto mining malware which, when loaded onto a compromised device, does mint new coins but successfully creates vulnerabilities in the victims' web browsers and extensions, enabling scammers to steal investors' coins and profits.
Experts have cited several reasons for the recent rise in cryptojacking cases. Generally, cybercriminals are leveraging the Log4j vulnerability to deploy attacks in the cloud. Besides this, cryptojacking is a lower-risk attack than ransomware or any other sort of cybercrimes. The financial industry has suffered several such cryptojacking attacks; the second-most vulnerable industry is retail. The most crucial aspect of cryptojacking is that the victims are often unaware that their computers or networks have already been comprised.
Researchers have also revealed that attackers seem to have changed their preferred targets over the past couple of months. It has finally moved from the government, healthcare, and education sectors to the retail and financial sectors. Cryptojacking attacks have surged in the finance sector by over 200%. The attacks have also become extensively lucrative with the recent advancements in technology. This indicates, that investors not only have to understand the volatility of the crypto coins but ensure they don't fall into these scam traps.
