Hackers Goal 400,000 Computers Using Mining Malware

The complex malicious software has been attempting to conquer antivirus defenses for more than 12 hours on March 6. According to Microsoft, the majority of the attacked computers, 73%, were located at Russia, followed by Turkey with 18 percent and Ukraine — 4 percent. Other countries have also been changed.
Microsoft claims that Windows 10, 8.1, along with Windows 7 computers with installed Windows Defender or Microsoft Security Essentials have been protected automatically. As stated by Bleeping Computer, other antivirus programs have probably detected the threat too. Dofoil has become a famous and active malware breed for many decades now.

Hackers Target 400,000 Computers with Mining Malware

The behavior-based along with cloud-powered machine learning versions included in Windows Defender detected the trojan strike in its early stage, the investigators stated. The threat was identified with the antivirus program, which began blocking additional attempts within minutes.
As demonstrated by a recent analysis by Kaspersky Lab, hackers are also targeting industrial businesses, attempting to benefit from their servers and computers. Attacks on automated control systems have grown in the past year. From California-based electric vehicle manufacturer Tesla, to some water purifying plant in Europe, a growing number of companies and institutions have reported strikes, despite their investments at cybersecurity.
Hackers Target 400,000 Computers with Mining MalwareMalicious scripts have become a popular instrument for hackers attempting to steal computing power so as to mine cryptocurrencies. There have been attempts to utilize popular platforms, such as Facebook Messenger and Youtube, to spread mining malware. In a number of accounts, cybersecurity firms have cautioned about attempts to hijack personal computers and even smartphones to mine unique coins.
Hackers Target 400,000 Computers with Mining Malware“Windows Defender blocked more than 80,000 instances of many complex trojans that exhibited advanced cross-process injection techniques, persistence mechanisms, and evasion techniques”, the study team developing Microsoft’s AV applications declared. Over 400,000 users have been concentrated, Bleeping Computer accounts.
Suspicious traffic was generated by the malware, when the coinminer tried to get in touch with its own command and control server located on the Namecoin network infrastructure. The malicious software was designed to mine Electroneum. The cryptocurrency uses “app based mobile mining”, based on its site.

Over 400,000 personal computers have been attacked in a large-scale effort to distribute cryptocurrency mining malware. The hackers employed complex trojans to sabotage PCs largely in Russia, but also in Turkey, Ukraine, and other countries. The assault lasted more than 12 hours.

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As stated by the Windows Defender team, the Dofoil malware employed in the attack tried to penetrate the explorer.exe process of the working system and inject malicious code. Then, the following explorer.exe was designed to download and run the cryptocurrency miner masked as a legitimate Windows binary — wuauclt.exe. The antivirus software was able to discover these attempts, as the procedure was operating from another place on the hard disk.