Monero (XMR) Combats Crypto Mining Malware Via New Initiative Called Monero Malware Response Workgroup
onero plans to help users stay clean. During the past week, the Monero community revealed the launch of a brand new website that aims to educate users on cleaning up crypto-jacking malware and ransomware.
Monero addresses the victims’ frustration and lack of knowledge
The privacy of Monero and the ease of its mining are two main features of the coin, but the sad thing is that they attract bad actors.
The director of the Malware Response Workgroup, Justin Ehrenhofer told CCN that two primary factors make XMR attractive to hackers.
He began by saying that “Attackers like Monero for two reasons: 1) it is private, so they do not need to worry about companies and law enforcement tracking what they do with the Monero after they mine it.
The second factor that he is referring to is “2) Monero uses a Proof of Work (PoW) algorithm that is CPU and GPU-friendly; thus, the infected machines are competitive. These two components are increasingly distinguishing factors for why attackers choose to mine Monero over other cryptocurrencies.”
Using crypto in malware is not limited to Monero only, as Bitcoin and other cryptos have been used in the same digital attacks as well.
Ehrenhofer said that the team behind Monero is creating a workgroup to help victims of malware who don’t necessarily know what Monero, mining or cryptos are.
This comes as a result of the increased prevalence of Monero-related malware.
The new Malware Response website will inform users about the various ways which can be used to prevent and also remove malware.
The site also includes remedies for the three types of attacks that are used: browser-based mining scripts, system/PC based malware, and ransomware.