• The number of attempts to use cryptomining software have decreased 11 percent in Q2 2022 compared to Q1 says Kaspersky
• The firm says that attacks fluctuate depending on the value of cryptocurrency
• The price of Bitcoin is 68 percent down from its all time high of $69 000 that it hit in November last year

During the rise in popularity of cryptocurrency over 2017 and 2018, drive-by cryptomining attacks became incredibly popular. The methods vary but the main idea is that a criminal will use a target’s energy and compute resources to mine cryptocurrency.

This can be done via a website, a specialised script or malware but the end point is the same – the criminal gets the benefit while your hardware gets used and your power bill climbs higher.

This week, Kaspersky has shared an interesting press release that we feel needed highlighting.

The cybersecurity firm reports that there is a downward trend regarding cryptomining attacks on the African continent but South Africa bucks that trend.

“The number of attempts by attackers to run cryptominers on home users’ machines decreased by 11 percent in Q2 2022 compared to Q1, yet, the number of home computers that were affected by cryptomining software increased by 2 percent over the same time period,” Kaspersky writes about the trend in South Africa.

Kaspersky doesn’t explain why this oddity has occurred but if we were the betting sort we’d say that the increase in cryptomining software on home computers is down to user error rather than a targeted attack.

Elsewhere in Africa, Nigeria say the number of attempts to run cryptomining software on home computers decrease by 16 percent in Q2 2022 while in Kenya the decrease was slightly lower at 3 percent.

“Before, cryptomining attacks were primarily an issue for endpoints, targeting desktops and laptops, sometimes – Android smartphones. Today, cryptojacking is expanding to include servers, network, and even IoT devices. Servers are usually higher powered than ordinary PCs and allow for greater mining capacity,” explains principal security researcher at Kaspersky, David Emm.

“We see different levels of mining activity in different regions – this is because of different levels of cryptocurrency adoption in countries, but also because of the fluctuations of cryptocurrency exchange rates. Once crypto rises in value, the activity of attackers using miners increases,” Emm adds.

Given that we are currently in a “crypto winter” it would make sense for attacks to die down as Emm points out. As CNBC points out, the price of Bitcoin is 68 percent down from its all time high of $69 000 that it hit in November last year.

The shuttering of firms Celsius and the plunge of Terra hasn’t been good for cryptocurrencies. While there has been much talk of the metaverse, the general attitude toward cryptocurrency and Web 3.0 is more tentative giving the many failings in the space.

While winter is here for the foreseeable future, cryptocurrency has a habit of springing back in value.

Should that be the case, we may see an increase in cryptomining attacks and Kaspersky advises you have a reliable endpoint security solutions in place.

This extends to your browser as well where plugins such as minerBlock and No Coin can blocked cryptomining scripts from running at all.