The cryptojacking attacks have turned into an active and common threat during the recent years. The shocking news about Tesla becoming a victim of cryptojacking hackers made other entrepreneurs worry about the security of their websites and cloud storages. Even if your company still looks for the answer to the question is cloud mining worth it and does not handle any cryptocurrencies, the attack may happen. According to the Redlock.io research, about 25% of enterprises are currently affected by cryptojacking activity.
While the intruders may cause the real damage to the company, their activity is hard to detect. As cryptojacking attacks are on the rise, it is better to prevent the invasion than to suffer from its consequences. Here is the important information that can help you to protect your company from cryptojacking attack.
What Is Cryptojacking?
Cryptojacking is a new term and it is not surprising that not everyone is aware of it. However, it is hard to fight with something that you do not fully understand. Thus, the first step to protecting your company’s computer system from cryptojacking is to find out how this attack works.
Cryptojacking is an illegal use of someone’s computer power in order to mine cryptocurrency. Cryptomining requires tremendous computing power that needs to be paid for. Hackers try to make the process cheaper by accessing someone’s site or cloud and using the power for free. The intruders can get into the system by making the victim click on a malicious link in an email or by infecting a website with JavaScript code loaded in a browser.
How to Protect the System from Cryptojacking?
Follow these simple steps to protect your company’s computing resources from cryptojacking attack:
Block the Ads
The criptojacking scripts often get into computer through web ads. Thus, installing an ad-blocking extension can become an effective way to stop the hackers. Some extensions like No Coin or Miner Block are particularly designed to detect crypto mining scripts and block them.
Choose Proper Endpoint Protection
The attack could be uncovered at the endpoint if you installed the antivirus software that has crypto miner detection. The vendors offer various products that have this feature. Cryptominers keep finding new techniques to avoid detection at the endpoint. However, there is a good chance that the cryptojacking attack will be identified at the endpoint if a proper protection is used.
Be Careful with Browser Extensions
The browser extensions are often used by hackers to bring crypto mining scripts to the system. It could be both malicious tools and poisoned legitimate programs. Be careful with installing extensions to your browser.
Monitor the Network Traffic
Analyzing the network traffic and correlating it with configuration data may allow the company to detect suspicious activity immediately. Enterprise monitoring of the network traffic could surely help you to protect your cloud account from cryptojacking..
Update the Organization’s Server Operating system
In March 2017 one offered a security update known as MS17-010. It effectively blocks a well-known crypto mining malware named Adylkuzz. This update is able to protect your organization’s server from the attackers.
Filter Suspicious Websites
Adding web filtering tools could help to protect your company from the websites that run crypto scripts. The suspicious websites will be blocked and will not be able to attack your computer. Do not forget to update filters as more sites could get infected.
Be Aware of the Inside Threat
Although the corporate policies of some companies do not forbid employees to run cryptomining operations using corporate resources, the employers hardly expect them to do it. There is always the risk that the company may be attacked by an insider. This situation is especially dangerous as the employees know what type of cryptojacking defense the company uses. Make sure the employees you hire are trusted and monitor users’ activity on corporate devices.
Although cryptojacking attacks quickly became a new threat to company’s computing system, the employers often underestimate the importance of preventive methods. Follow the recommendations above to protect your devices from any digital parasites.
Additional Resources:
For more information, you may check Data Loss Prevention Software – DLP Tool I SolarWinds