Observations of the denoted period have shown attacks happening 2.5 times more often than before. The tendency expressed in absolute numbers equals 8.3 million incidents during 2013.
The reasons behind these numbers are pretty straightforward as the rise of Bitcoin’s price from $13.6 to its peak of $1,200 with subsequent (and relative) stability in recent months have attracted new users. Hence, it’s not surprising that the increased value, demand, capitalization, and overall popularity of cryptocurrencies have attracted their fair share of people wanting to take advantage of unwary users.
Inexperienced users neglecting simple security rules become an easy prey for attackers. Inappropriate storage on the computers without corresponding encryption simplifies the task of the hackers, who only need to obtain the wallet file.
Kaspersky Lab has reduced all possible finance-related malware leaving 30 samples for acquisition. Nine out of thirty are designed to steal cryptographic currencies and were responsible for 29% of all financial cyber-attacks during the given period.
