Google security report reveals, compromised cloud instances used for crypto mining (2024)

“Attackers also continue to exploit poorly configured Cloud instances to obtain profit through cryptocurrency mining and traffic pumping. The universe of ransomware also continues to expand with the discovery of some new ransomware that appears to be offshoots of existing malware with mixed capabilities.”

Moving on, time also plays a key role in the compromise of the Google Cloud instances. The shortest amount of time between deploying a vulnerable Cloud instance exposed to the Internet and its compromise was determined to be as little as 30 minutes. Moreover, 58% of cryptocurrency mining software breaches were downloaded within 22 seconds of the account being compromised. The chart below sheds light on this narrative.

What does this signify? Well, looking at the aforementioned timeline, initial attacks and subsequent downloads were scripted events. It didn’t need any human intervention. The report states, “The ability to manually intervene in these situations to prevent exploitation is nearly impossible. The best defense would be to not deploy a vulnerable system or have automated response mechanisms.”

Russian connection

Russian government-backed hacking group APT28, also known as Fancy Bear, attacked about 12,000 Gmail accounts in a mass phishing attempt. Similar to the previously mentioned tasks, these fraudsters would lure to change their credentials on the attacker’s controlled phishing page.

Another hacking involved a North Korea-backed hacker group posing as recruiters at Samsung and sending fake job opportunities to South Korean information security firms’ employees.

In addition to this, another recent report was recently discussed scammers who compromised YouTube videos and cumulatively earned at least $8.9 million in October alone, through fake cryptocurrency giveaways.

Witnessing such a high surge in these malicious activities, improving security by incorporating two-factor authentication (2FA) needs to be a priority.