Cryptocurrency Mining Malware Hits Smartphones

Security experts have now warned that cyber criminals are targeting Smart phones to mine for cryptocurrency like Bitcoin. Even though, you didn’t download any malware-infected or unknown app, still your mobile phone is vulnerable to cryptojacking.

In the past, cyber criminals made several attempts to mine cryptocurrency illegally in one form or the other. According to cyber security experts, as soon as the user visits an infected website, the Smart phone undergoes cryptojacking in the form of mining for cryptocurrency.

In March this year, two reports were released by ESET and Symantec – Both Cyber security companies. These reports have revealed that the Smartphone's cryptojacking cases are increasing fast. The hackers are using the technique of entering infected codes into websites and online ads. As soon as the user opens the infected website on the mobile, its processor gets infected.

As per the recent report by Symantec, in the entire Asia-Pacific region, Singapore is most vulnerable to cryptomining attacks, and holds 6th position. The data analyzed from more than 157 countries ranked Singapore at 25th position globally. The report further disclosed that there is an increase of 34,000 percent jump in Smartphone cryptojacking globally as compared to the last year. The cyber criminals are using cryptominers on mobile phones, thereby, posing a serious threat to the security available on mobiles. Last year, ransomware was a major concern, and now, the process seems to have shifted to cryptojacking.

In cryptomining malware, the users are prompted to install an infected app onto their Smartphones. While, on the other hand, cryptojacking takes place, as soon as the user opens an infected website on his or her mobile device. Simultaneously, more users are vulnerable to such attacks.

For cyber criminals, the whole process of cryptojacking seems to be a money-making machine. The more they infect the number of devices, the more money they will get. According to Mr. Sherif El-Nabawi, Senior director at Symantec Asia-Pacific, the problem of illegal cryptomining is a serious one, and it’s not possible that it will go away on its own, unless and until some stringent methods are implemented.

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Crypto wallet was hacked by T-Mobile Phone Scam

Man loses $20k, Phone number, crypto-wallets hacked, T-Mobile US held responsible

A man from Washington who lost all of his crypto-coins has filed a suit against T-Mobile USA after the hackers were able to defraud his phone number. Even, the ‘PIN’ was ignored, for which T-Mobile has already put out an alert service.

Carlos Tapang approached the US state's western district court, and pleaded that the T-Mobile violated America's Federal Communications Act. The miscreants, in November last year, were able to get control of his phone number because of the huge lapse of security services by T-Mobile USA. Unfortunately, the strangers were able to take over his cryptocurrency wallets fraudulently. On account of this mischief, he lost thousands of dollars drained by them in digital money.

As per complaint made by Tapang, the mischief happened on November 7 last year when some unidentified person approached T-Mobile and asked the mobile company to move his (Tapang’s) number to a gadget on AT&T's network. Without verifying any details or asking for a PIN to approve the transfer of mobile number, Tapang claimed that T-Mobile is responsible for the entire security lapse. He asked the telecom co. that for what reason telco staff simply authorized the number port as requested by the miscreant. Surprisingly, AT&T assigned his mobile number to the criminals, without following the required US federal communication act.

It has been further alleged that the hackers fraudulently utilized the mobile number to reset his (Tapang’s) online cryptocurrency accounts password which was related to that number. After that, they accessed his cryptocurrency account, took a control over his wallet and moved his funds to an unidentified location.

Tapang's suit claims the stolen currency amounted to 2.875 Bit coins (approximately $20,350). The criminals converted his 1,000 OmiseGo (OMG) tokens and 19.6 Bit Connect coins into BTC illegally.

To conclude with, we must say that Tapang is not the only person whose mobile number was stolen via a falsified port-out application. In the past too, many persons have reported thefts in their wallet accounts. In order to provide assistance, T-Mobile USA has set up a website to handle these issues. Furthermore, consumers are told to set up a secure PIN to safeguard their numbers.

However, Tapang claims that T-Mob protection policy is hopeless. The telco falls short to need the PIN and permitted his number to be transferred without any verification. In this situation, the mobile network has been accused of carelessness, and for that reason, fully responsible for the hack.

The legal suit stated that T-Mobile has totally failed to implement safeguard policies regarding the conception and verification of user credentials for approved customers accessing mobile wallet accounts, thereby, leading to unfair trade practices. Moreover, T-Mob has failed to guarantee that only approved persons have such access and that customer accounts are safe and secure.

The defendants T-Mobile USA, however, did not made any comments on the legal suit.

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