Hackers recently hijacked the City of Oulu’s website in an attempt to extract cryptocurrency on the site with visitors’ devices, according to the city.
According to the city’s chief security officer, the hacking was detected over the weekend. Kari Nykänen.
"Our service provider went through the servers of the sites and found the script," Nykänen said and added that the hacker code was in the system in less than a day.
A cryptocurrency is a digital or virtual currency that is created on computers and then traded between investors. The best known cryptocurrency is Bitcoin, but there are thousands of other types of virtual currency.
Cryptojacking
More cryptocurrencies are needed for both computing power and electricity. According to an Internet security company, in order to produce virtual currency efficiently and cost-effectively, hackers use a method known as kryptejacking to get victims’ computers to do so. Kaspersky.
The code used in the cryptography of the city of Oulu was a cryptocurrency called Monero.
The malware was used via the victims’ computers when they visited the city’s website, but according to Nykänen, it was only active when the site was searched.
"The malware was active as long as the site was viewed, but it did not install anything on users’ computers," he stressed and added that the offensive script had been removed and that the city system was fully operational on Monday.
The city learned of what happened when Yle’s security team spotted suspicious traffic from the city-maintained site over the weekend.
The origin and cause of the hacking was investigated on Monday, says Nykänen, who added that it may be a security vulnerability, but it is still unclear.
Cryptojacking has been in use for a few years. In some cases, operators of obscure websites install mining scripts themselves, but legitimate sites can also be hacked for this purpose, says Yle’s security manager. Kim Johansson.
Source: The Nordic Page