A few years ago, companies were reluctant to adopt cloud computing because they thought a lack of physical access to the network would deprive them of control over their data. A major shift occurred when they understood that, with suitable configuration and security, cloud computing offers serious benefits.
Cloud security has grown into a major issue for enterprises, as only one company in six encrypts all data, according to a Bitdefender survey. While 85% of CISOs fear security flaws in the public cloud, as many as 51 percent of enterprises don’t properly secure their cloud storage services, according to RedLock, leaving their data exposed to hackers.
Recent waves of malicious crypto mining pose new dilemmas in terms of where to draw the line between what is legitimate and what is not. Mining cryptocurrencies has become expensive and coin miners have turned to other people's and companies' devices for resources. As a result, datacenters can and will fall victims to it unless they are prepared to fight off intruders.
Like most groundbreaking inventions, cryptocurrencies bring a moral paradox: while some people consider them a revolutionary tool to make the world a better place, others already use it to fuel their illegal activities. Therefore, it was just a matter of time before this energy-hungry activity became a serious cybersecurity issue.
Coin Miner Reports Outrank Ransomware by Two Orders of Magnitude, According to Bitdefender Telemetry
Bitdefender telemetry revealed that from September 2017 until February 2018, ransomware reports have followed a descending curve, while coin miner reports have increased by 130 percent by January 2018. Interestingly, cryptojacking is currently one of the fastest spreading cyber threats, already outranking ransomware’s exposure by a factor of 1 to 100 according to Bitdefender’s intelligence, and is recently displaying targeted behavior, by leveraging fileless techniques and exploits to infiltrate organizations and spread laterally.
