Carbon Black, a cybersecurity firm, discovered a $6.7 million market on darknet sites for cryptocurrency theft malware. The firm cataloged 12,000 such marketplaces offering about 34,000 different prod
Carbon Black, a cybersecurity firm, discovered a $6.7 million market on darknet sites for cryptocurrency theft malware. The firm cataloged 12,000 such marketplaces offering about 34,000 different products. Prices range from $1.04 to $1,000.
Stealer malware represents the primary threat, compromising a victim's device and draining their wallets. Covert-mining malware provides a secondary approach, hijacking a target's GPU to mine cryptocurrency for the attacker. Both funnel stolen assets to the criminal's account within minutes.
"It's surprising just how easy it is without any tech skill to commit cybercrimes like ransomware," Rick McElroy, a security strategist at Carbon Black, told CNBC. "It's not always these large nefarious groups, it's in anybody's hands."
Cryptocurrency exchanges face the most attacks, accounting for 27% of all incidents. Businesses experience 21%, individual users 14%, and government agencies 7%.
Monero dominates the criminal marketplace, appearing in 44% of all attacks. Ethereum represents 11%, with Bitcoin at 10%. Criminals also target NEM, Bitcoin Gold, and Tether, among others.
Thieves stole $1.1 billion in cryptocurrency during the first half of 2018. Coincheck, a Japanese exchange, lost $350 million in January. BitGrail, an Italian exchange, lost $170 million in February. In April, operators of a Vietnamese exchange exit scam absconded with $660 million.
Carbon Black expects criminal activity to escalate. "Decentralized cryptocurrencies are likely to increase in sheer quantity and in value in the short-to-mid term … cybercriminals will attempt to exploit the ever-increasing attack surface," the report states. "Unfortunately, new investors and traders looking to jump on the crypto bandwagon will exacerbate the opportunity for exploitation. We expect to see cryptocurrency theft and illicit mining activity expand in the mid-to-long term as security mechanisms and user awareness slowly catch up to the evolving threat."
