Cryptojacking Incidents Fell By 78% In The Second Half Of 2019

According to a report from cybersecurity intelligence firm SonicWall, the number of cryptojacking attacks that happened in the second half of last year, significantly reduced. SonicWall’s report says incidents were 78% less than the volume in the first half.

Cryptojacking is the act of infiltrating an unsuspecting computer system with a malware specifically designed to hijack the computer’s processing resources, using it to mine digital assets. The report states that the Coinhive closure added to the reduction.

Coinhive was a cryptocurrency mining service that announced in February last year that it will stop operations by March. The platform was also exploited for illegal mining. The announcement said it had to go out of the market due to economical inviability.

SonicWall’s report now says that the price of different assets “created an untenable situation between Coinhive-based cryptojacking malware and the legitimate Coinhive mining service.” After the Coinhive shutdown, cryptojacking incidents fell at least 78%.

Cryptojacking has however not completely stopped. According to a tweet from Microsoft Security Intelligence, hackers were taking advantage of the recent death of NBA superstar, Kobe Bryant. The tweet explains that the team found “a malicious HTML file” which was purported to be a Kobe Bryant wallpaper. In fact, however, the file contained a coin mining script.