With cryptojacking on the rise, new types of mining malware are becoming more sophisticated.
Today Cointelegraph is reporting that Trend Micro has discovered a new type of cryptojacking process that targets Linux workstations. This malware package works on a rootkit and is self-updating – a deadly combination.
Analyst explanations of this unnamed strain talk about how the software “gives itself privileges” after obtaining administrative status.
The big question for many investors is what cryptojacking will do to markets.
To understand that, it pays to really comprehend how pervasive cryptojacking has become. An MIT article from last year talks about how cryptojacking is “all the rage” and reports including this one talk about the use of a popular Showtime website allowing hackers to mine darknet cryptocoin Monero.
Others talk about how hacker groups steal information from the NSA and how widespread the cryptojacking practice now is.
It’s not really being talked about much on the Internet these days, but some of the silent concern on the part of investors is that cryptojacking is going to trigger new regulatory activity.
With so many people ringing the warning bells about pervasive jack-mining malware, it may be only a matter of time until regulators like the SEC respond with more punitive measures against cryptocurrencies as a whole.
That could push back against some of the momentum of digital coins, a momentum that investors dearly want to see when buying and holding Bitcoin or any other coin, for that matter.
So although cryptojacking really does benefit miners, it might not benefit the community as a whole. People make a big deal about how it only uses a little bit of power, and how that supports widespread apathy about the process:
“Jackers pick so many pockets at once that the cost per victim is minimal: a fraction of a cent in electricity and only a slight dip in computer performance (if done right),” wrote Jonathon Keats in WIRED in February. “It might even be a new model for micropayments, letting us opt in to swapping processor time for content or services. And the best part? We don’t have to lift a finger … unfortunately, that’s also what makes cryptojacking so hard to stop: It trades on our apathy, and we’ve got plenty of that to spare.”
Regardless of the apathy that may have shielded cryptojacking from more major attention to date, it’s having quite a large impact in the media these days, and that’s where it could be dangerous for investors.
