Stealth mining attacks in the largest Scandinavian economy increased by about 10 percent in the fourth quarter of last year, roughly double the jump worldwide, according to Symantec Corp's 2018 Internet Security Threat Report.
“Hidden mining, where you install a program without permission and steal the power of someone else's processor, is very crude, but it is not illegal. This in itself is not a crime. Thus, the hacker takes on very little risk,” says Ola Renberg, head of security at Symantec.
The biggest risks are borne only by the computer owner. Coin mining slows down devices, overheats batteries, and in some cases makes devices unusable. For businesses, the virtual gold rush could compromise corporate networks and overwhelm CPU usage, driving up energy bills.
It has become an "industry" where "hackers work nine to five, Monday through Friday, and go on Christmas holidays," notes Renberg.
The trend of hidden cryptocurrency mining in Sweden is partly due to hacking of websites through which mining then takes place, then there is a website that steals your computer's power while you are on it.
Sweden is very suitable for such purposes because the country is rich and most people have powerful modern computers. A faster computer allows you to mine more coins.
As digital currency prices have risen, mining has become very profitable, although this may change.
“But then the bad guys will find another way to make money,” says Renberg.
According to http://www.taipeitimes.com
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