Government Websites in UK, US Have Been Secretly Mining Cryptocurrencies
Ami Rojkes Dombe
| 12/02/2018
bigstockphoto
Who said that government ministries are not a source of income? Government websites in the UK and US, including those belonging to the data regulator and the Student Loans Company, have been secretly commandeered by hackers to mine bitcoin.
The website of the Information Commissioner's Office was among several to be taken offline after a security researcher discovered that malware was being used to illegally mine cryptocurrencies.
The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said it was investigating the incident.
The rogue code was added by criminals to texthelp, which is used to make websites readable for those who struggle with literacy, according to researcher Scott Helme. The technology is used by many websites, including those belonging to the US Courts, the General Medical Council, and some local councils. "If you want to load a crypto miner on 1,000-plus websites you don't attack 1,000-plus websites, you attack the one website that they all load content from," said Helme.
[Source: City A.M.]
bigstockphoto
Who said that government ministries are not a source of income? Government websites in the UK and US, including those belonging to the data regulator and the Student Loans Company, have been secretly commandeered by hackers to mine bitcoin.
The website of the Information Commissioner's Office was among several to be taken offline after a security researcher discovered that malware was being used to illegally mine cryptocurrencies.
The UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said it was investigating the incident.
The rogue code was added by criminals to texthelp, which is used to make websites readable for those who struggle with literacy, according to researcher Scott Helme. The technology is used by many websites, including those belonging to the US Courts, the General Medical Council, and some local councils. "If you want to load a crypto miner on 1,000-plus websites you don't attack 1,000-plus websites, you attack the one website that they all load content from," said Helme.
[Source: City A.M.]
