The cryptocurrency craze of 2018 helped drive a 1,500 percent increase in coinmining malware when compared to 2017, according to eSentire.
Coinmining malware mines cryptocurrency (typically Monero) directly on infected endpoint devices (CoinMiner) or in web browsers (Coinhive) when a user visits a website running malicious code. Once infected, the coinmining malware silently mines cryptocurrency while consuming a significant amount of processor cycles, resulting in devices with sluggish performance and reduced battery life.
