Cryptocurrency Jacking A Serious Concern For IT Specialists, Survey Says
Cryptojacking is a serious security threat to 86% of IT professionals, according to a recent survey compiled by the Singaporean company – Acronis.
Despite the concerns, 12% of all participants in the study indicated that they are not taking any particular measures to protect their online privacy.
IT Professionals Concerned About Cryptojacking
This year’s Acronis survey on cyber protection was the fifth-annual compiled by the company. It consulted nearly 3,000 people from 11 countries on various digital challenges and concerns.
One of the topics was about cryptojacking. It occurs when an unauthorized individual or entity is controlling a third-party device (computer, smartphone, or a whole network of equipment) to mine cryptocurrencies.
The perpetrators can execute it by installing malware through a suspicious application. However, in-browser cryptojacking doesn’t need a program – it operates automatically without the victim’s knowledge or approval.
Therefore, IT professionals’ concerns on the matter are quite serious. More specifically, 86% of all asked IT specialists agree that cryptojacking and the dangers it can produce are a real security threat. Personal users seemed a bit less worried as “only” 78% of them have expressed their concerns against potential cryptojacking.
Ransomware is another growing worry among personal users (82%) and IT professionals (88%). It’s a type of malicious software cyber criminals use to block the victim from accessing his own data and then request some payment to unlock it.
Lack Of Security
The study found some rather disturbing data regarding cybersecurity. 12% of all personal users said that they are not doing anything, in particular, to protect their privacy online. They responded that they have never used any sort of anti-malware software at all.
32% pointed out their lack of knowledge on the matter, saying that they wouldn’t know if an unauthorized party is accessing or modifying their data. Almost all of them were not aware if their anti-malware is up-to-date and if it can detect newly emerging cyberthreats.
Somewhat expectedly, IT professionals are much more knowledgeable on the topic. However, 6% of them were not sure if their organization was subject to data privacy regulations. 12% didn’t know if they could detect unauthorized data manipulation.
Another report from last year unveiled that lots of individuals and employees of companies in large sectors are choosing weak and generic passwords. Some of the most commonly used were – “passw0rd, 1qaz2wsx, career121, abc123, password1.” Needless to say, all of them seem prone to hacking.
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