The Russian pipeline giant Transneft admitted its computers were used for mining Monero cryptocurrency, the company removed the malware from its computers.

The Russian pipeline giant Transneft announced its systems were infected with a Monero cryptocurrency miner. The company confirmed it has successfully removed the threat from its systems, the company spokesman Igor Demin told Reuters the cryptomining software was automatically downloaded by a Transneft computer and was later erased.

“[Demin ] noted that the company now has programmes to block such downloads and prevent similar incidents in the future.” reported IBTimes.

The news of the security breach was reported to the company by Transneft vice president and former interior minister Vladimir Rushailo.

“Incidents where the company’s hardware was used to manufacture cryptocurrency have been found. It could have a negative impact on the productivity of our processing capacity,” he explained during a meeting without providing further details on the infection.

The spike in the values for some cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Monero is attracting crooks that are spending a lot of efforts in the attempt to steal funds stored in the wallets used for these two cryptocurrencies or to abuse resources to mine crypto coins.

The company now announced that it has improved its systems to prevent similar security breach will happen again.

A growing number of businesses were caught running cryptomining scripts on their websites to secretly generate digital currencies as an alternative to online advertising.

The list of websites running cryptominins code includes The Pirate Bay, Politifact, Showtime, Starbucks, and UFC.

The Russian Government is planning to create a specific legislative framework to address the regulation of virtual currencies, the authorities will allow purchasing cryptocurrencies but the new legislation aim to make mining illegal.

“The penalties will be different, mostly administrative, but if someone created the cryptocurrency for the purpose of settlements, then there will be a criminal punishment,” explained the Deputy Finance Minister Aleksey Moiseev.

Pierluigi Paganini

(Security Affairs – cryptocurrency miner, Transneft)

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