"A New Type of Cryptomining Attack Aims to Hijack Network Bandwidth"

Researchers from Aqua Nautilus discovered a new type of cryptomining attack in the wild that is designed to hijack network bandwidth. They pointed out that until now, cryptominers attempted to generate cryptocurrency by performing extensive, complicated calculations. They exploited the CPUs of their targets to do. According to the researchers, "old school" cryptominers caused a significant increase in CPU consumption, but new cryptominers are causing only a moderate increase in CPU cycles. Furthermore, network bandwidth consumption is high. Aqua's researchers discovered the new cryptojacking malware targeting its honeypots in February. The attack came from an account called peer2profit, which drew their attention, but the container was identified as a cryptominer by Aqua's detectors due to similar behavior. The researchers initially paid little attention to the attack. However, they later discovered another attack that employed various user-mode rootkits to conceal the attack. They then decided to look into the behavior further and noticed a significant increase in network activity. From there, they conducted additional peer2profit research and discovered it was targeting PKT Cash, a site that allows users to profit from excess bandwidth. This article continues to discuss the new type of cryptomining attack designed to hijack network bandwidth. 

SC Magazine reports "A New Type of Cryptomining Attack Aims to Hijack Network Bandwidth"