Kaspersky Lab Found a New Form of Cryptojacking Malware

The Russian cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab has found a new form of cryptojacking malware.

PowerGhost is a new form of cryptojacking malware identified by the Russian company Kaspersky Lab. The new malware does not take in “hostage” user’s files as other malware do. Instead, it uses the individual processes of the computer to hijack it. The new software has been identified in India, Brazil, Colombia, and Turkey. Once installed, the software is free to mine cryptocurrencies.

As reported by Kaspersky Lab, the miner is “capable of stealthily establishing itself in a system and spreading across large corporate networks infecting both workstations and servers“.

The number of illegal cryptocurrency miners is increasing as the rate of digital currency adoption grows. As reported on June 28 by Kaspersky Lab, hackers became more interested in cryptojacking rather than ransomware malware.

“Kaspersky Lab has a tradition of reporting on the evolution of ransomware … This year, however, we came across a huge obstacle in continuing this tradition. We have found that ransomware is rapidly vanishing and that cryptocurrency mining is starting to take its place,” states the report.

“It appears the growing popularity and rates of cryptocurrencies have convinced the bad guys of the need to invest in new mining techniques – as our data demonstrates, miners are gradually replacing ransomware Trojans,” said Kaspersky in the new report.

Main security researcher David Emm told ZDNet:

“PowerGhost raises new concerns about crypto-mining software. The miner we examined indicates that targeting consumers is not enough for cybercriminals anymore – threat actors are now turning their attention to enterprises too. Cryptocurrency mining is set to become a huge threat to the business community.”

Kaspersky Lab is not the only cybersecurity firm concerned with hacker threats. This month, Skybox Security also reported that the number of cryptojacking incidents is on the rise. The company described the malware as “money-making safe haven for cybercriminals.”