Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

SecurityWeekSecurityWeek

Cybercrime

Interpol Announces Successful Operation Against Cryptojacking in Southeast Asia

Interpol announced on Wednesday that it has coordinated an international operation aimed at removing illegally installed cryptocurrency miners from routers located in Southeast Asia.

Interpol announced on Wednesday that it has coordinated an international operation aimed at removing illegally installed cryptocurrency miners from routers located in Southeast Asia.

The operation, dubbed Goldfish Alpha, was conducted in cooperation with Trend Micro, along with law enforcement and CERTs from ASEAN countries, including Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

The operation was launched in June 2019 and participants worked over a five-month period to identify compromised routers, alert victims, and install patches that would prevent cybercriminals from controlling the devices.

Trend Micro and others reported in August 2018 that hundreds of thousands of MikroTik routers around the world had been infected as part of a massive cryptojacking campaign. Cybercriminals planted malware on the routers by exploiting a vulnerability that had been patched by the vendor several months earlier.

Over 20,000 of the compromised MikroTik routers were found in the ASEAN region and Interpol reported that the number was reduced by 78% as a result of Operation Goldfish Alpha, and efforts to clean up the remaining devices continue.

Interpol pointed out that the operation also increased awareness of cryptojacking among law enforcement organizations, as well as showing them how these types of threats can be identified and mitigated.

Based on data collected by Trend Micro, cryptojacking was the most detected threat in the first half of 2019 in terms of file-based threats.

Related: Ransomware Attacks ‘Getting Bolder’: Europol

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Related: Hackers Target Flaws Affecting a Million Internet-Exposed Routers

Related: MikroTik Router Vulnerabilities Can Lead to Backdoor Creation

Written By

Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a managing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.

Click to comment

Trending

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest threats, trends, and technology, along with insightful columns from industry experts.

Join this event as we dive into threat hunting tools and frameworks, and explore value of threat intelligence data in the defender’s security stack.

Register

Learn how integrating BAS and Automated Penetration Testing empowers security teams to quickly identify and validate threats, enabling prompt response and remediation.

Register

People on the Move

DARPA veteran Dan Kaufman has joined Badge as SVP, AI and Cybersecurity.

Kelly Shortridge has been promoted to VP of Security Products at Fastly.

After the passing of Amit Yoran, Tenable has appointed Steve Vintz and Mark Thurmond as co-CEOs.

More People On The Move

Expert Insights

Daily Briefing Newsletter

Subscribe to the SecurityWeek Email Briefing to stay informed on the latest cybersecurity news, threats, and expert insights. Unsubscribe at any time.