While investigating the Wannacry Ransomware attack, researchers from cyber security firm Proofpoint discovered a new malware attack which has silently hijacked thousands of computers around the world including the United States.
The news is out that the hackers not only succeeded in silently planting the malware in computer networks but their activity is said to have generated millions of dollars in cryptocurrency.
Note- Adylkuzz is a currency mining malware which remotely helps hackers or its developers to mine cryptocurrency from your PC. In other words, the malware acts as a botnet and steals processing power of your computer/s to mine a newer form of digital currency called Monero. Unlike Litecoins, Dash, Peercoin, Ripple, Dogecoin, Primecoin, Chinacoin, Ven, Bitcoins, and Ethereum; Monero is more used as a digital currency of darknet marketplace AlphaBay.
As of now, the attackers behind this attack are unknown. But Proofpoint issued a media statement which said that the attack might have taken place in April this year. But remained under wraps due to its minimal impact than Wanna cry.
The statement added the fact that the malware might have generated around a million euros to the hackers and might infect all networked computers on a global note making them dead slow and specifically incompetent to handle heavy applications.
According to Ryan Kalember, the senior vice president of cybersecurity firm Proofpoint, hackers employed the same hacking tools which were developed by the US National Security Agency to exploit Microsoft’s operating system vulnerabilities.
Ryan added that the impact of this malware on the world will be gigantic and more substantial than Wanna cry when it gets technically identified. The firm is still working on issues like who launched the attack, its effects and why it went undetected.
Kalember is specifically sure that North Korea’s Lazarus Group which launched last week’s Wanna cry attack is behind this attack as well.
Microsoft has released a pair of patches early today to fix the vulnerability exploits caused by both Wanna cry and Adylkuzz. But the company said that those computers which were already infected with the virus may find the issued patches useless.
