Stop mining for hackers… NOW

Over the past six months, cybercriminals have raked in more than $7 million through injecting crypto-miners. Here we explain how miners work on users' computers, why they've become a major cyberthreat (especially for businesses), and how to protect your infrastructure against them. In 2017, when the Bitcoin and alt-coin (alternative crypto-currencies) exchange rates hit the stratosphere, it became clear that owning tokens (which can be converted into real money) is a lucrative business.

How can businesses protect devices from miners?

* Install security solutions on all computers and servers in use to keep your infrastructure an attack-free zone;

* Carry out regular security audits of your corporate network for anomalies;

* Keep a periodic eye on the Task Scheduler, which can be used by intruders to start malicious processes;

* Don't overlook less obvious targets, such as queue management systems, POS terminals, and even vending machines. As the miner that relied on the EternalBlue exploit shows, such equipment can also be hijacked to mine cryptocurrency;

Use specialised devices in Default Deny mode — this will protect them from miners and many other threats, too. Many anti-virus solutions do have specialised devices. You can look in to those.