More Than 4,000 Government Websites Infected With Covert Cryptocurrency Miner

["Dave Farber" <dave () farber net>]

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: José María Mateos <chema () rinzewind org>
Date: Tue, Feb 13, 2018 at 4:56 PM
Subject: More Than 4,000 Government Websites Infected With Covert
Cryptocurrency Miner
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>


Dave,

For IP, if you want.

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20180213/10232239223/more-than-4000-government-websites-infected-with-covert-cryptocurrency-miner.shtml

---
The rise of cryptocurrency mining software like Coinhive has been a
decidedly double-edged sword. While many websites have begun exploring
cryptocurrency mining as a way to generate some additional revenue,
several have run into problems if they fail to warn visitors that
their CPU cycles are being co-opted in such a fashion. That has
resulted in numerous websites like The Pirate Bay being forced to back
away from the software after poor implementation (and zero
transparency) resulted in frustrated users who say the software
gobbled upwards of 85% of their available CPU processing power without
their knowledge or consent.

But websites that don't inform users this mining is happening are just
one part of an emerging problem. Hackers have also taken to using
malware to embed the mining software into websites whose owners aren't
aware that their sites have been hijacked to make somebody else an
extra buck. Politifact was one of several websites that recently had
to admit its website was compromised with cryptocurrency-mining
malware without their knowledge. Showtime was also forced to
acknowledge (barely) that websites on two different Showtime domains
had been compromised and infected with Coinhive-embedded malware.

While Bloomberg this week proclaimed that governments should really
get behind this whole cryptocurrency mining thing, the reality is that
numerous governments already have -- just not in the way they might
have intended. Security researcher Scott Helme this week discovered
that more than 4,000 U.S. and UK government websites -- including the
US court system website -- have been infected with cryptocurrency
mining malware, a number that's sure to only balloon.
---

JMM.



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