Are You Mining Bitcoin for Hackers?

How to Know If You Are Mining Bitcoin for Hackers

Human inventions keep evolving and finance is no exception. During the past decade, a new form of currency has evolved. This is an improvement from the previous past currency system of barter trade. Barter trade involved the exchange of goods for goods. This system evolved into the monetary system that is still in use to date. The finance industry has improved and created the bitcoin and cryptocurrency system. This currency system stands out from the monetary one in that a specific government does not own it. Its creation and presence exist digitally, which makes it superior. Therefore, how exactly did this currency come into existence?

The Genesis of Bitcoin

Most people have very little information concerning this currency. The person who created it is still unknown. The only information present on the creator revolves around a pseudonym known as Satoshi Nakamoto. No one really knows if this pseudonym stands for a person or a group of people. However, to-date, three people have tried to secure communication of bitcoin transactions through a patent. The three people are namely, Charles Bry, Vladimir Oksman, and Neal King. This patent was secured about two months before the domain of the Bitcoin was bought (Bitcoin.org).

There are so much silence and mystery with respect to the creator of the bitcoin. A few people have tried to lay claim to this currency, including Craig Wright, who is an Australian man. This has brought about a new cybercrime subject. Cybercrime attacks have shifted their attention from device malware to cryptocurrency malware. This malware is very dangerous since it carries out its tasks while hidden. The techniques used by the malware are state-backed and sophisticated making this form of cybercrime very lucrative.

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The Most Common Forms of Crypto Jacking

1. Weak SHA-25- SHA-25 protects all the HTTPS transactions. It replaced its shorter version, which is SHA-1 that was weak. There is a growing concern that this too might be as weak as its previous counterpart might. Thus, if you are carrying out some of the bitcoin processes such as mining try to plan for the crypto-agility. This is the ability to keep an underlying program and to do some cypher replacing.
2. Plaintext crib attacks- Blockchain formats are easy to figure out and they should not be. The block format has a similar position for numbers, characters, and letters. Thus, crypto jackers crib a plaintext representation in each block. This makes the encryption cypher weak that helps hackers to steal cryptocurrencies in the end.
3. Implementation weaknesses- The cryptologic algorithms are more reliable than the program that will implement it. A small issue such as a private key security or a bug can make the entire thing crumble. Thus, make sure that the programmers of the software are minimizing the bugs by applying a secure development lifecycle (SDL). Another possible issue with this hack is that if a hacker has not mastered the coding well, they can damage all the value beyond recovery. This means that an inexperienced hacker could use this hack to get your funds and end up destroying them all beyond repair.
4. Trojan transfers- These trojans wait for cryptocurrency account numbers on your computer. Once it finds one, it replaces that account number with another one. Thus, you might transfer cryptocurrencies directly to the account number of a hacker. Very few people can detect the switch. Thus, make sure you countercheck your recipient’s account number just before you send it.
5. Stolen value stores- These stores are wallets that cryptocurrencies use to store their money. These stores are transferrable, stealable, manipulatable, and compromisable. Once any of these processes take place, the store becomes inaccessible. Wallets are not like bank accounts. You cannot access your money through an online bank account. Thus, you could protect yourself by using authentication that is multi-factor on your offline wallet.
6. Bitcoin miner malware- It takes a lot of power and energy to mine bitcoins. Thus, every time you create a bitcoin it becomes harder to create the next one. For a person who mines bitcoins, their first investment is the electricity to support all the mining processes.
7. Site hacking- This entails hacking the cryptocurrency site itself and the cryptocurrency is taken from the managing mother-source. Protect yourself by backing up the value of your cryptocurrency to an offline alternative such as a PC- Backup.

The Process of Cybercriminal Cryptocurrency

1.  The user downloads the software that looks legitimate but has really been compromised. This software downloads the miner inside it through the instructions it has. This entire process is not detectable through anti-virus systems. This is because the software appears legitimate in the face of it. It uses a JavaScript code.
2. The dropper software installs and runs itself through an ‘msiexec’ installer, which executes modules that are malicious from the remote server. This will help the attackers to change the code that has instructions on mining bitcoin currency.
   Take note that up to this point the internal security system will still not be aware that it has been compromised. If the user finds out and tries to shut this process down, the entire system will reboot. This will prevent the system from noticing that a malware is present. In order to prevent and protect yourself from cybercriminal cryptocurrency, you need to know how to tell if your device has a cryptocurrency malware. This can only be done through knowing and learning about how your device might behave if it has such a malware in its system.

The two key characteristics of a device that has been crypto jacked include:

• Slow speed. This is because the hidden processes and the ones that are performed by the user are draining the CPU.
• Cooling fans operate at high speeds. This is because they are trying to compensate the activity jump in the device.

Therefore, if your computer is behaving in a similar manner you might want to protect your cryptocurrency from being jacked. Cryptocurrency jacking has become rampant nowadays.  Companies including; Starbucks, UFC, Politifact, Pirate Bay, and Showtime, have all been affected.