Plato Data Intelligence.
Vertical Search & Ai.

BlackBerry Unveils Top Cryptocurrency-Focused Malware Amid Rising Cyber Threats – Investor Bites

Date:

SNEAK PEEK

  • SmokeLoader, RaccoonStealer, and Vidar are top cryptocurrency-focused malware.
  • Finance, healthcare, and government are most targeted by cyberattacks.
  • OpenAI allocates $1 million to bolster AI-driven cybersecurity technologies.

As cyber threats continue to escalate, BlackBerry’s cybersecurity arm has spotlighted the most pernicious cryptocurrency-focused malware. Over a span of three months, they thwarted over 1.5 million cyberattacks, unraveling patterns and identifying the most common culprits.

In cybersecurity, SmokeLoader, RaccoonStealer (also known as RecordBreaker), and Vidar take the top spots. Significantly, SmokeLoader, an age-old rogue financial tool from 2011, remains actively used by Russian-based cybercriminals for crypto mining and more.

Additionally, RaccoonStealer is infamous for cryptocurrency wallet data theft and is reportedly peddled on the dark web. Vidar, another significant threat, is frequently used to harvest cryptocurrency wallets.

However, the trio is not alone in posing threats. RedLine, a commodity malware, has been a consistent menace in the financial sector, tasked with harvesting cryptocurrency and banking information. Moreover, Clop ransomware—a CryptoMix ransomware family variant—has targeted banking and financial institutions, causing the data breach of Hatch Bank, a fintech banking platform.

According to BlackBerry’s findings, the finance, healthcare, and government sectors are most often the targets of such attacks. Consequently, Linux has emerged as the prime target among all operating systems, with hackers exploiting it for cryptocurrency mining.

Besides Linux, a new strain of infostealer named Atomic macOS has been discovered, primarily used to extract credentials from macOS users’ keychains, browsers, and crypto wallets.

Hence, BlackBerry urges organizations to apply security patches regularly. To this end, OpenAI has announced a $1 million cybersecurity grant program to foster the development of AI-driven cybersecurity technologies, which could significantly aid in such protective measures.

spot_img

Latest Intelligence

spot_img

Chat with us

Hi there! How can I help you?