The American cybersecurity company SonicWall released a report asserting that crypto-jacking incidents targeting cloud and macOS devices have skyrocketed to 332 million from the last year’s 67 million, marking a surge of almost 400%. As per the report, the United States and Europe recorded the highest attacks in January, February, April, and May, accounting for an overall increase of 340% and 788% respectively over the year.
The report highlighted that the crypto community has been witnessing exploitations in the form of cryptojacking, loT malware, and encrypted threats. While cryptojacking ranked highest in the yearly surge, loT malware, and encrypted threats followed with a surge of 37% and 22% respectively. While the cryptojacking incidents in the US totaled 215 million, the crypto attacks in Europe rose to a staggering 88.3 million. Similarly, the United Kingdom had a massive increase of 479% in the exploit as the last year’s crypto attacks which stood at 1.2 million grew to 6.8 million.
Bobby Cornwell, SonicWall Vice President of Product Security detailed the reasons for the higher levels of cybercrime in Latin America and Asia, commenting:
SonicWall intelligence suggests that bad actors are pivoting to lower-cost, less risky attack methods with potentially high returns, like cryptojacking. It also explains the reason we’re seeing higher levels of cybercrime in regions like Latin America and Asia. Hackers search for the weakest points of entry, with the lightest possible repercussions, limiting their risk and maximizing their potential profits.
It is significant to note that the threat actors who target financial gains through cyber malpractices remain successful amidst the tightened crypto regulations. The report revealed that the high rate of cryptojacking has resulted in the embezzlement of a large amount of the leading virtual asset Bitcoin (BTC).
