Cryptomining Used For Corporate Espionage

Cryptoming software can be used for other things such as stealing corporate secrets according to Troy Kent, a threat researcher at Awake Security who presented his findings at the InfoSecurity America Conference.

Justin Jett, Director of Audit and Compliance at Plixer:

“Malicious software writers are becoming more and more sophisticated in their attempts to breach organizations and steal their data. This new use of crypto mining software by hackers for more nefarious purposes is yet another example of how malware is evolving to be more difficult to detect. As Troy Kent, a threat researcher for Awake Security, stated while presenting his research, “with this attack, people are using a tool, a crypto miner that they’re used to seeing on their network.” This means that security and IT professionals will be more likely to ignore the threat or push it aside as a non-threat. This is why network traffic analytics is especially important. The normal detection methods that indicate crypto mining software is on the network don’t go far enough to indicate that the software is also stealing privileges information. Network traffic analytics provides the forensic data needed to show IT professionals that the software they think is benign is, in fact, stealing their most important or sensitive information. Network traffic analytics is the “advanced detection method, based on behavior and analytics,” needed to protect businesses.”