Cisco: University Campuses, Utilities Companies Doing Most Crypto Mining

Mining originating from US college campuses makes up a sizeable portion of cryptocurrency mining, PCmag reported yesterday. The article is based on a report by Cisco Systems regarding activity within their “Umbrella” internet security network.All told, as much as 22% of crypto mining within Umbrella originates on university campuses. And according to Cisco security researcher Austin McBride, much of that mining is distributed, suggesting a high incidence of individuals who are mining.This is probably due to college dormitories’ unmetered electricity, which could be used to mine crypto at a very low cost - with miners needing only to worry about wear-and-tear on their machines.

Building on the theme of cheap electricity costs, Cisco discovered that even more mining is being done done by utilities and energy companies - and probably maliciously.The recent Cisco report on the subject said that such organizations “may be hot targets due to their likeliness to use outdated systems and software that are more prone to vulnerabilities.”“Cryptojacking” computers at electricity-producing sources is a sure way to beat other miners to profitability, which may explain why an impressive 34% of mining is done - knowingly or not - by this sector on the Umbrella network.Despite a year of falling crypto prices, Cisco claim a 19,000% increase in mining requests on their network during the last year.

Coinhive Shuts Down

Cryptojacking - surreptitiously mining cryptocurrency on an unwitting victim’s computer - has been a constant threat for years, and will probably go on being a threat for some time to come. Poor security practices, or even simply unpatched software, can lead systems wide open to attack.CryptoGlobe recently reported that Coinhive will shut down within a matter of days, perhaps changing the dynamic of cryptojacking.

read more: https://www.cryptoglobe.com/latest/2019/03/university-campuses-utilities-companies-doing-most-crypto-mining/