Security News > 2022 > March > Cryptomining groups fight fiercely for cloud resources

Cryptocurrency mining groups that typically have targeted on-premises servers are now competing fiercely for servers in the cloud.

"Some groups avoid the competition altogether by focusing on different aspects of the system, which results in less crossover between rival groups," the researchers observed.

While cryptomining may seem relatively innocuous at a time when ransomware and distributed denial-of-service are running rampant and potential cyberthreats spilling out of Russia's invasion of Ukraine are capturing a lot of attention, these threat groups get into the cloud systems the way ransomware and other gangs do - making them potential harbingers of more dangerous attacks to come, according to the researchers.

The Trend Micro researchers also said companies shouldn't view a cryptomining attack as a singular cybersecurity event - because it indicates problems in a company's security posture that could be exploited by other threat groups.

"Cryptocurrency mining groups enter cloud deployments through similar methods, typically through the exploitation of a security flaw within target systems, such as an unpatched vulnerability, weak credentials, or a misconfigured cloud implementation," they warned.

Like Outlaw, groups like "Kinsing" and "8220" also try to remain under the radar, despite being among the most active groups Trend Micro analyzed, with at least 1,000 beacons a month reaching their servers.

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https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/03/31/cryptomining_cloud_trend/