Security firm Kaspersky Lab released a new report entitled “IT Threat Evolution Q2 2014” and discovered that bitcoin is the target of about one-fifth of all financial malware attacks, a sign that enhanced bitcoin security measures need to be incorporated.
According to the security report, bitcoin mining malware accounted for 14 percent, bitcoin wallet thefts represented eight percent and four percent of these attacks were related to an array of key logging malware.
Of course, conventional banking methods still accounted for a strong majority of all financial malware with 74 percent. However, as the bitcoin industry continues to grow in size and scope, experts concur that more needs to be done to prevent the chances of being attacked. It should be noted, however, that the number of bitcoin-related malware attacks has dropped since the organization published its annual report.
The 2013 report found that bitcoin wallet thefts represented more than 20 percent of all malware incidents and mining malware accounted to close to nine percent. In total, bitcoin financial malware was 29 percent of total malware.
“Fraudsters are also happy to use computing resources to generate crypto currency: bitcoin miners account for 14% of all financial attacks,” the report stated. “Criminals also use keyloggers to collect user credentials for online banking and payment systems in another bid to access bank accounts.”
Despite the fact that bitcoin malware threats have diminished, the risks are slowly evolving and becoming more inventive. This creates a tremendous problem for the peer-to-peer decentralized digital currency industry as it seeks to become more mainstream and adopted globally. Unfortunately, its competitors will exploit this and presume that consumers are sticking with conventional means to avoid becoming a victim.
This past month, it was discovered that a new type of malware attacked bitcoin and altcoin wallets. The latest version has been created to infiltrate users’ computers to attain the victims’ financial information like their bitcoin wallets and other traditional banking data.
Furthermore, cyberattackers have infected DVRs with bitcoin mining malware, while others have breached standard security cameras. Other methods consist of producing mining botnets and ransomware. It’s possible that unscrupulous individuals will conjure new spurious techniques.
The bitcoin industry is attempting to coalesce in order to combat this dangerous threat as it could metastasize into something bigger. Instead of relying on law enforcement agencies, think-tanks and bitcoin entrepreneurs are creating new ways to make using bitcoin safer and a lot more secure than it was even earlier this year.
