While the effects of the WannaCry cyber attack are still being felt across the world, a cyber security firm – Proofpoint – has now pointed out that there is another assault going on in the cyberspace, one which is "large-scale", "stealthy" and can dwarf WannaCry in comparison, reported AFP.
The new attack goes by the name Adylkuzz and takes advantage of the very vulnerabilities that were exposed in the WannaCry case.
Nicholas Godier, who works as a researcher at Proofpoint, was quoted by AFP as saying:
It uses the hacking tools recently disclosed by the NSA and which have since been fixed by Microsoft in a more stealthy manner and for a different purpose
As suggested by Godier, the strategy followed by Adylkuzz is different from the WannaCry ransomware attack. Rather than blocking the data and then demanding a ransom Bitcoin payment from the user to access that data (as was the case in the WannaCry attack), Adylkuzz mines the virtual currency Monero in the background of infected devices, which is then transferred to the hacking party.
Moreover, the firm pointed out that the attack is less conspicuous, in that the users may not notice any outright symptoms in their devices to know that there has been a cyberattack.
As the firm further suggested, the Adylkuzz attack – which may have been at work since 24 Arpil – has already transferred money worth many thousand dollars
Is WannaCry just the beginning?
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