4. Cryptocurrency Stabilization Will Bring Back Both Miners And Ransomware
Cryptomining has taken attention away from threats such as ransomware due to its higher profit margins, reduced assumption of risk, and embrace of a recurring revenue model, said Brian Hussey, VP of Cyber Threat Detection and Response, Trustwave SpiderLabs. In fact, Webroot Senior Threat Research Analyst Tyler Moffit said half of all attacks in 2019 will be based off leveraging hardware to mine cryptocurrency.
We will continue to see more and more malware operators trying to cash in on cryptocurrency by either mining coins on the infected systems and/or stealing cryptocurrency from the infectd systems, said Zscaler VP of Security Research Deepen Desai. This will involve both new malware strains as well as existing strains adding mining or stealing modules to the victim's device, Desai said.
The maturation of cryptocurrencies, introduction of regulatory frameworks, and exit of unstable currencies from the market will result in the return of standalone coin miners and ransomware in 2019, Proofpoint said. This includes the reintroduction of ransomware at scale as the economics of malware generally designed to steal from victims in Bitcoin becomes more favorable, Proofpoint said.
