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Hackers have stolen the processing power of several Indian government websites to mini cryptocurrencies, the researchers found.
City portals such as that of the municipal administration of Andhra Pradesh (AP), Tirupati Municipal Corporation and Macherla municipalities are among the hundreds of Indian websites that have been infected with cryptographic malware. Cryptojacking, as the term implies, allows hackers to access victims' computers for the sole purpose of extracting cryptocurrencies. Hackers do this by tricking victims by clicking malicious links on emails or infecting websites with JavaScript code by uploading them to victim browsers.
It seems they have done the same with many of these government websites mainly because they have traffic volume, found Indrajeet Bhuyan, one of the security researchers behind the revelation.
"Hackers are targeting government cryptocurrency websites because these sites receive high traffic and most people trust them," he said. "Previously, we have seen a lot of government websites being defaced.Now, the crypto-jacker injection is more fashionable as the hacker can make money."
An effort by Indian media to speak with JA Chowdary, the IT consultant of the prime minister of the AP, gave a one-sided response from him. [19659003] "Thanks for letting us know about the hacking of the AP website," he said.
However, nothing concrete has been done to solve the problem. The malware code continues to run on public AP portals. Recent efforts by CCN to reach their websites have also encountered a downtime error.
Cryptojacking on the Rise
It is not just government websites that are on the cybercriminal list. They are also highly trafficked encryption systems for mini cryptocurrencies – secretly. PublicWWW has found over 100 sites that run Coinhive javascript that extracts Monero coins. The same script had previously infected more than 200,000 ISP-level routers globally and is among the top three cryptocurrency malware on the web, along with Cryptoloot.
Hackers are inclined to use cryptojacking as the main tool to earn money illegally, so it does not require significant technical skills. The darknet sells cryptojack kits for just $ 30, finds a Digital Shadows report. It's a cheaper alternative to a much more complex ransomware attack, which means more money for less risk.
However, encryption continues to be the choice of a poor man for the inability to achieve substantial gains.
"With a hash rate of 80 H / s and the payment rate of CoinHive, a miner earns about 5.8 USD per day and website on average, which supports our observation that web-based cryptojacking currently offers only limited profits ", says a report from the Braunschweig University of Technology.
Less risk means less money!
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