Kaspersky reports drop in cryptocurrency mining attempts in Philippines in Q1

There were fewer cryptocurrency mining attempts against small and medium businesses (SMBs) in the Philippines in the first three months of the year, data released by global cybersecurity firm Kaspersky on Wednesday revealed.

According to Kaspersky, there were 7,537 mining attempts against SMBs—businesses with 20 to 250 employees—in the first quarter.

This is down from the 29,646 the same quarter last year, bringing the Philippines' rank down to 40th most hit country across the globe versus 36th in 2019.

Kaspersky defines malicious mining, also known as cryptojacking, as “attacks that can inflict both direct and indirect losses for a business.”

Cryptocurrency miners are those that infect the computers of unsuspecting users, and are said to essentially operate according to the same business model as ransomware programs, where the victim’s computing power is harnessed to enrich the cybercriminals.

Regionally, Kaspersky detected over a million mining attempts in Southeast Asia during the quarter, 12% higher than the 949,592 mining incidents in 2019.

"We cannot refute the fact that malicious mining is far less destructive compared with ransomware, data breaches, and the like but it remains a risk that SMBs should consider seriously," said Yeo Siang Tiong, general manager for Southeast Asia at Kaspersky.

"Cybercriminals behind these attacks are using your own resources, from your electricity, your data bandwidth, to your devices’ hardware which are not cheap at all," he added.

Kaspersky called on SMBs to regularly update their operating systems and software, distrust email attachments by default, avoid installing software from unknown sources, and use a dedicated endpoint security solution.

"There are obvious signs when your file is being held by ransomware, but malicious miners take a long while to notice, compounding the true cost of this malware. Cryptocurrency is here to stay which also means cybercriminals will continue to look for devices they can use illegally for mining," said Yeo.

"One important point SMBs should consider is that there is a direct correlation between successful cryptojacking and the use of pirated software. The more freely unlicensed software is distributed, the more miners there are, so I urge companies to use legitimate software at all times," he added. — Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/BM, GMA News