A group that specializes in hijacking victims' computer capabilities to mine Monero is back with new tools to attack companies based in the United States and Europe.
Japanese cybersecurity firm Trend Micro said on Monday that the group, known as Outlaw, had infiltrated Linux-based corporate systems with the aim of hijacking computer power supplies and mining the privacy coin Monero (XMR), known as cryptojacking. reported that it has started.
According to the Trend Micro report, Outlaw used a combination of existing tools and new techniques to monitor programs that could detect malware.
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The new and improved malware can also hunt down and kill existing mining bots (including the group's previous miners) found on infected systems, eliminating competition and increasing mining profits. In past iterations, we were only able to partially reduce the activity of rival mining bots.
According to Trend Micro, Outlaw activity began to increase in December after several months of inactivity. “[W]We expect the group to become even more active in the coming months as we observed changes in the version we received,” the report states.
Outlaw was previously limited to computer systems in China, but Trend Micro's report found that it is now targeting companies in Europe and the United States. The cybersecurity firm found that the group targeted several honeypots, mechanisms designed to lure hackers into attacks. Eastern Europe region.
The report does not name companies affected by Outlaw malware in the United States or elsewhere.
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Trend Micro says the group may also try to steal information and sell it to the highest bidder. Companies in the financial and automotive industries that have not recently updated their internet security systems are at high risk, a cybersecurity firm has warned.
Outlaw first rose to prominence in 2018 for installing cryptocurrency mining bots into the software of Internet of Things (IoT) devices. In 2019, Trend Micro detected a group attacking computer systems in China with a similar malware design that hijacked computer power and mined Monero.
Malware that takes over your computer's power supply and mines Monero is not uncommon. In February 2018, over 500,000 computers were infected by a botnet that mined approximately 9,000 of his XMR tokens (worth approximately $3.6 million at the time) over a nine-month period. Being a privacy coin, hackers can sell Monero without the risk of being caught by authorities.
Little is known about the Outlaw hacking group, or even what it is.Trend Micro coined the name “Outlaw” as a Romanian translation Hajdukwhich is the name of one of the group's favorite hacking tools.
