A research discovered over 415,000 routers worldwide to be infected with malware that is designed to steal their computing power and secretly mine cryptocurrency.
The attack, which is still underway, affects MikroTik routers from Brazil specifically. According to reports, the crypto-jacking attacks on the routers began in August when security officials discovered more than 200,000 devices to be infected.
However, the numbers have doubled since then and experts claim that devices from all over the world are being targeted.
Interestingly, security experts claim that attackers are now using several other mining software apart from their all-time favorite CoinHive. The research suggests that although CoinHive is a major player and utilized for 80-90 percent of attacks – Omine is being used on an occasional basis as well.
Is there any prevention?
According to security experts, owners of the affected MikroTik devices should immediately update their routers to the latest firmware version available.
Additionally ISPs (internet service providers) can also prevent the spread by forcing over-the-air updates to the routers.
Click here to find the latest version of RouterOS from MikroTik users.
The attack, which is still underway, affects MikroTik routers from Brazil specifically. According to reports, the crypto-jacking attacks on the routers began in August when security officials discovered more than 200,000 devices to be infected.
However, the numbers have doubled since then and experts claim that devices from all over the world are being targeted.
Interestingly, security experts claim that attackers are now using several other mining software apart from their all-time favorite CoinHive. The research suggests that although CoinHive is a major player and utilized for 80-90 percent of attacks – Omine is being used on an occasional basis as well.
Is there any prevention?
According to security experts, owners of the affected MikroTik devices should immediately update their routers to the latest firmware version available.
Additionally ISPs (internet service providers) can also prevent the spread by forcing over-the-air updates to the routers.
Click here to find the latest version of RouterOS from MikroTik users.
