Cybercriminals have always been financially motivated, and cryptocurrency mining is the latest trend in generating revenue by abusing the same age-old malware attack vectors previously associated with ransomware dissemination. The recent Bitcoin craze, with the currency peaking at $19,000 per unit, has focused cybercriminals on crypto mining, instead of traditional ransomware.
Bitdefender telemetry has shown that crypto currency-enabled malware is increasingly outdoing ransomware in popularity, with the rise in adoption picking up in the past six months.