A recently-released security report by Microsoft—titled “Microsoft Security Endpoint Threat Summary 2019″—says that “cryptocurrency mining encounters are down 40% from 2018.”
Microsoft points out that “as the value of cryptocurrency rises and falls, so does the mining encounter rate.”
It then explains how cryptojacking attacks work:
“Attackers inject mining software into an unsuspecting user or organization’s machine(s) and then use the machine’s compute power to mine for the cryptocurrency.
“This can cause decreases in system performance and increases in utility costs.
“But perhaps more concerning is that attackers often turn mining software into something more
malicious as their motivations change.”
The countries with the highest encounter rates (in descending order) were Ethiopia, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Tanzania, Peru, Bolivia, Mozambique, Ecuador, Kazakhstan, and Ghana.
The countries that had the lowest encounter rates (in descending order) were Ireland, the United States, Japan, Norway, Switzerland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, China, Finland, and Denmark.
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