Symantec: mining malware is the top virus of 2017, +8500% quantity increase

Symantec, a major company which has developed and upgrades a popular Symantec antivirus program, has released another report on Internet security in which it has notably stated that the increase of popularity of mining viruses in 2017 made astonishing +8500%. This major shift of the hackers’ interests is explained by the fact that regular viruses are not that profitable.

Stealthy mining viruses which hijack the resources of the computer and mine cryptocurrency for hackers are often described on the Web pages of Bitnewstoday. One notable example called ADB.Miner has even managed to infect Android TV devices. More primitive malware can harm the hardware of the smartphone because it has not kill switches pre-installed by hackers and never ceases mining.

Mining viruses are often disseminated through phishing (71% of such attacks began with this type of social engineering).

Symantec confirms what Bitnewstoday has already theoreticized about: “The next logical step in the evolution of mining viruses would probably be the infection of devices working on the IoT (Internet of Things) principle when it’s possible.” Indeed, the report mentions IoT devices as future vulnerable targets.

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