Beware of ‘cryptojackers’ infiltrating consumer devices to mine virtual currencies

Fortinet, a global leader in broad, integrated and automated cybersecurity solutions, has recently issued a security alert that cybercriminals are now targeting media devices and unsecured IoT devices for cryptomining as many of them use powerful GPUs to decode and transcode content in highresolution formats. Media devices are especially attractive targets due to their use of powerful GPUs combined with lax home security. And because they tend to always be powered on, there is a lot of downtime that can be exploited without detection.

Cryptojackingis a new technique wherecybercriminals sneak malware into computers and other media devices, and then hijack the computer’s processing power to perform cryptomining. The number of reported cases is rising and cybersecurity experts are warning individuals and businesses about the danger.

“Cryptojacking has become a growing concern. Cybercriminals aren’t satisfied with the available sup- ply of vulnerable servers and PCs to hijack in order to mine their favorite cryptocurrency.

“So, they have added another rich source of computational horsepower to their arsenal—IoT devices,” said David Maciejak, Director of Security Research, Fortinet.

Due to the explosion in Internet of Things (IoT), which is projected to connect up to 20.4 billion devices globally by 2020,more and more electronic devices in homes are being connected to a network or Internet.

According to Fortinet’s FortiGuard Labs, Hide ‘N Seek (HNS) could be the first in-the-wild malware to actively target vulnerabilities in home automation solutions. HNS is an IoT botnet which targetsrouters, IP cameras, DVRs, as well as cross-platform database solutions and smart home devices.

“As our work and social networks expands and the potential threat footprint in our homes continues to grow, it is critical that we take a fresh look at how we could protect from growing number of networks we interact with. With the prevalence of BYOD (Bring Your Own Device), work devices brought home are also subject to greater risk of cyber-attacks,” said Maciejak.