Brazil is Top Cryptojacking Coinhive Target, Warns Iranian Cybersecurity Authority

A new report by Iran’s country’s cybersecurity authority has revealed that Brazil has recorded the highest incidents of Coinhive crypto jacking software.

According to the report, Brazil is the country with the most reported cases and has been hit over 81,000 times by Coinhive.

The report said India came in second with around 29,000, followed by Indonesia with more than 23,000, while Iran scored about 11,000.

Coinhive is the cryptocurrency mining software which mines Monero (XMR). It offers an Application Programming Interface (API) to developers, which then lets the developer use a website visitors’ CPU resources to mine the privacy-centered altcoin.

But crypto jacking malware reports has surged almost 500 percent in 2018. According to calculations in June, around 5 percent of the total circulating Monero supply was mined using such illicit techniques.

A study had found that around 300 websites worldwide contained malicious code which would lead to a device becoming infected with Coinhive without users’ knowledge.

More recently, the software has been removed from League of Legends Philippines, and police in Japan investigated a crypto jacking case with Coinhive used as malware.

Relating to Iran specifically, CERTCC found the capital Tehran to be most contaminated with 606 reports, followed by Esfahan with 244.

“It is expected to be one of the security challenges in years to come,” the report’s authors forecast.

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