CoinHive Cryptocurrency Miner Is 6th Most Common Malware, Says Report

Cyber-security solutions provider Check Point Software has said that the threat from cryptocurrency mining malware is rapidly growing.

According to the company's latest Global Threat Impact Index report, the CoinHive variant became the sixth most-used malware in October. CoinHive – a JavaScript program that lurks unseen on websites – works by tapping the processing power of visitors' computers to mine monero.

Maya Horowitz, threat intelligence group manager at Check Point, said in a press release that the emergence of mining malware like CoinHive highlights the "need for advanced threat prevention technologies" to curb such practices and protect networks from cyber-criminals.

Horowitz added:

"Crypto mining is a new, silent, yet significant actor in the threat landscape, allowing threat actors to make significant revenues while victims' endpoints and networks suffer from latency and decreased performance."

According to the report, malware variant RoughTed (adware) topped the index, followed by Locky (ransomware) and Seamless (traffic redirection).

Recently, internet domain provider Cloudflare suspended websites that ran hidden cryptocurrency miners, including that of the operator of torrent site ProxyBunker. This site was said to be running the Coinhive miner for four days prior to the suspension.

Malware image via Shutterstock