Vollgar botnet attacks thousands of servers running Microsoft SQL for cryptocurrency

Vollgar botnet attacks thousands of servers running Microsoft SQL for cryptocurrency mining

For two years, the Vollgar botnet has been attacking servers that use Microsoft SQL databases to mine cryptocurrencies, Hacker News reports.

According to Guardicore Labs, in the past few weeks alone, attackers have managed to infect 2,000 to 3,000 servers daily. The attack is carried out by guessing the password on servers with weak protection. After that, hackers can execute commands of interest to them and install mining software.

Organizations in the healthcare, aviation, education, telecommunications and IT sectors in China, India, South Korea, Turkey and the United States are victims of attacks. The attackers' main control server is located in China. By a curious coincidence, he himself was also attacked.

Guardicore Labs has released a script on GitHub to help potential victims identify signs of botnet intrusion into their systems. The botnet is engaged in mining the VOLLAR cryptocurrency, from which it got its name.

“Among the files on the controlling server, we found MS-SQL attack tools that scan IP address ranges, brute force attacks, and remote command execution,” Guardicore Labs said. "We also found two programs with a Chinese interface."

Guardicore Labs recommends that server administrators use enhanced security measures to avoid hacking.

“The databases of these servers are attractive to cybercriminals not only because of their valuable computing power, but also because of the huge amounts of data stored in them. They can contain personal information, including usernames, passwords and credit card information, which hackers can access using simple brute force, ”the company adds.

Study: 87% of IT Pros Concerned About Rising Cases Of Cryptojacking

Acronis conducted a survey of information technology professionals, which showed that 87% of respondents are worried about the growing number of attacks by stealthy cryptocurrency mining.

According to the report, IT professionals are concerned about the growing number of hidden cryptocurrency mining attacks on user devices. Experts point out that 30% of regular users and 13% of professional users will not be able to recognize changes made by cryptojacking programs on their devices.

The report also highlights that awareness and fears about cyber threats, in particular cryptojacking, have increased by 33% since 2019. Also, IT professionals are increasingly wary of ransom attacks, as reported by 88% of those surveyed.

Jeff Horowitz steps down from Coinbase

Horowitz began his career at Lehman Brothers and Citigroup and took up a senior position at Coinbase in 2018. According to the exchange staff, he made a huge contribution to the establishment and improvement of procedures aimed at combating money laundering and customer identification. Horowitz has also assisted Coinbase in complying with the Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the United States Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN), the U.S. Treasury Department, and other regulators.

In addition, Horowitz has worked hard to get the American investment bank JPMorgan to partner with Coinbase. Marketplace officials believe that by joining Coinbase as Chief Compliance Officer, Horowitz has taken every possible step to legalize the cryptocurrency industry, which is still in its early stages of development.

USDC stablecoin to be added to Stellar blockchain amid high Ethereum fees

The stablecoin USDC will launch on the Stellar blockchain in the first quarter of 2021. This was announced by the Center consortium, which is the issuer of USDC. USDC is currently available on the Ethereum and Algorand blockchains. The latter was supported in September.

“We appreciate the increased interoperability and the wide range of developers at the Stellar network, and want to know how the addition of a reliable and stable dollar stablecoin will impact the growth of its ecosystem,” said Jeremy Aller, CEO Circle. The Center consortium was founded by Circle and Coinbase.

Currently, USDC's turnover exceeds $ 2.8 billion. Thus, stablecoin Center is the second largest after USDT issued by Tether.

According to the announcement, USDC will give Stellar users access to a set of related services, including payment instruments, infrastructure APIs, and enterprise products. Circle encourages developers from the Stellar ecosystem to contact her to discuss possible collaboration options.

One of the advantages of USDC on the Stellar blockchain over its variation on Ethereum is that the former does not experience the same pressures that users of the latter have to face in light of the increased activity in the DeFi space. This, in turn, will help to better realize the payment capabilities of the stablecoin.

“Adding USDC to Stellar will enable us to continue expanding our global reach to fulfill our mission, while opening up new opportunities for growth and innovation for developers and businesses,” said Denelle Dixon, CEO of the Stellar Development Foundation.