The threat of malicious cryptocurrency miners has remained prevalent in Kenya, recording a high number of targeted users, according to cybersecurity firm Kaspersky.
This as the trading of cryptocurrency trade continues to gain momentum with the Global Crypto adoption Index 2021 ranking Kenya as a top country in peer to peer exchange trade.
Since the beginning of 2021, Kaspersky has detected more than 1,500 fraudulent global resources aimed at potential crypto investors or users who are interested in cryptocurrency mining.
Currently in Kenya, the share of all users targeted by malicious crypto miners in H1 2021 was 0.85 per cent.
This is much higher in Ethiopia a share of 3.68 per cent then Rwanda a share of 3.22 per cent.
“Although these percentages may be interpreted as low and may not seem significant to users, crypto-miner malware has been identified as one of the top three malware families, which we believe emphasises that as cryptocurrency continues to gain momentum, more users will likely be targeted,” said Bethwel Opil, Enterprise Sales Manager at Kaspersky in Africa.
When looking at the fraudulent global resources detected by Kaspersky, typically, cybercriminals locate sites in popular domain zones: .com, .net, .org, .info, as well as in zones where domain acquisition is cheap: .site, .xyz, .online, .top, .club, .live.
“A distinctive feature of phishing and other types of cryptocurrency fraud is the high level of detail on phishing websites,”
For example, on fake crypto exchanges, real data, such as bitcoin rates, is often loaded from existing exchanges.
Attackers understand that people who are investing or are interested in this area are often more tech-savvy than the average user.
Therefore, the cybercrooks make their techniques more complex in order to get data and money from these people.
Kaspersky recommends various the traders to not follow dubious links and be critical of extremely generous online offers, to be more secure.
The firm also recommended the traders to download applications from official stores only and to Use a security solution that protects against phishing, scams, and prevents the installation of malicious applications.
