Between March and May, BlackBerry’s cybersecurity division thwarted over 1.5 million cyberattacks, with malware families specifically designed to hijack computers for cryptocurrency mining or theft. The industries hit the hardest by these attacks were finance, healthcare, and government, as reported by BlackBerry.
Among the notable threats, RedLine emerged as a long-standing financial threat, dedicated to harvesting sensitive information, including cryptocurrency and banking data. Additionally, Clop ransomware, a variant of the CryptoMix ransomware family, specifically targeted banking and financial institutions, causing a data breach at Hatch Bank.
The list of most prevalent malware families included SmokeLoader, a notorious rogue financial tool dating back to 2011, primarily utilized by Russian-based threat actors to load crypto miners and other malware. RaccoonStealer, also known as RecordBreaker, was responsible for stealing cryptocurrency wallet data and was found being traded on the dark web. Vidar was widely employed to harvest cryptocurrency wallets.
BlackBerry’s report highlighted that Linux was the primary target among operating systems. As a precautionary measure, organizations were advised to regularly apply security patches to protect against hackers attempting to exploit Linux systems for cryptocurrency mining.
Moreover, a new strain of info stealer named Atomic macOS (AMOS) targeted macOS users. Its primary purpose was to collect credentials from various sources, including keychains, browsers, and crypto-wallets, making macOS users vulnerable to data theft.
In a recent report by Todayq News on March 13, 2023, Jamf Threat Labs, a cybersecurity firm, discovered a crypto-jacking program targeting Mac users. The malware is hidden within copies of Apple’s Final Cut Pro, a video-editing application. Cryptojacking is a cybercrime where hackers use hijacked computing resources to mine cryptocurrency without the owner’s knowledge or consent.
Whereas a recent, survey by Trend Micro shows that 78% of IT security professionals expect a successful cyber attack within the next 12 months. Despite improved global cyber risk, 70% anticipate breaches in customer data, and 69% predict breaches of critical data.
Recently, openAI, the creator of ChatGPT and DALL-E, announced a $1 million cybersecurity grant program in an effort to advance AI-driven cybersecurity technologies. The program aims to support and evaluate the effectiveness of such technologies in fending off online threats.