According to a new report, 85% of all illicit cryptocurrency mining targets Monero (XMR). The mining of cryptocurrency requires a great deal of computing power. The amount of power necessary is incredibly costly. On this account, countless crypto mining malware practices have emerged to illegally harness other individuals’ unused computing power without their consent. These practices are harmful and, unfortunately, extremely common.

Illegal Crypto Mining on The Rise

The ubiquitous nature of crypto mining malware has paved way for counter initiatives and organizations such as The Cyber Threat Alliance (CTA). The hacks are so prevalent, a recent report by CTA states that the detection of this type of malware has skyrocketed by 459% since 2017. With illicit mining on the climb, it appears one coin is especially attractive to the hackers.

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Monero Is the Most Popular Among Illegal Miners

CTA released a report in July entitled “The Illicit Cryptocurrency Mining Threat.” The report revealed the shocking news that illegal Monero mining outweighs the mining of other cryptos by a landslide. To put it in perspective, 85% of these mining malware scams are targeting Monero, the anonymous cryptocurrency that just hard-forked.

Meanwhile, Bitcoin is only being targeted by 8%. The remaining 7% is split between all other cryptocurrencies. If you are curious why Monero is seemingly on such high demand, you may want to look to The Shadow Brokers to answer that query.

The Hacker Group You Need to Know About

The Shadow Brokers are a hacker group who first generated notoriety in the summer of 2016. The group leaked several tools from the NSA which they have utilized in their hacking pursuits since. A specific scam conducted by the group leaked EternalBlue, an NSA creation, to exploit windows computers. EternalBlue was used to deploy WannaCry, a worldwide ransomware attack. Following which, a new attack called WannaMine emerged for mining purposes.

WannaMine targets Monero. Illegal miners may lean towards the mining of Monero because consumer hardware can generate Monero, rather than having to depend on expensive equipment. WannaMine is an advanced and very dangerous miner. Though it isn’t the first of its type to use EternalBlue for this purpose, and it may not be the last.

Protect Your Computer, Protect Your Monero

The CTA report predicts that crypto mining malware is not going anywhere anytime soon. The attacks can impact your computing power and your computer’s safety. As such, we recommend taking extensive precautions in the realm of cybersecurity.