Skip to main content

Thousands of Government Websites Hacked to Mine Cryptocurrencies


There was a time when hackers simply defaced websites to get attention, then they started hijacking them to spread banking trojan and ransomware, and now the trend has shifted towards injecting scripts into sites to mine cryptocurrencies.

Thousands of government websites around the world have been found infected with a specific script that secretly forces visitors' computers to mine cryptocurrency for attackers.

The cryptocurrency mining script injection found on over 4,000 websites, including those belonging to UK's National Health Service (NHS), the Student Loan Company, and data protection watchdog Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), Queensland legislation, as well as the US government's court system.

Users who visited the hacked websites immediately had their computers' processing power hijacked, also known as cryptojacking, to mine cryptocurrency without their knowledge, potentially generating profits for the unknown hacker or group of hackers.

It turns out that hackers managed to hijack a popular third-party accessibility plugin called "Browsealoud," used by all these affected websites, and injected their cryptocurrency-mining script into its code.

Browsealoud is a popular third-party browser plugin that helps blind and partially-sighted users access the web by converting site text to audio.

The script that was inserted into the compromised Browsealoud software belongs to CoinHive—a browser-based Monero mining service that offers website administrators to earn revenue by utilizing CPU resources of visitors.

The mining software was found in more than 4,200 websites, including The City University of New York (cuny.edu), Uncle Sam's court information portal (uscourts.gov), the UK's Student Loans Company (slc.co.uk), privacy watchdog The Information Commissioner's Office (ico.org.uk) and the Financial Ombudsman Service (financial-ombudsman.org.uk), UK NHS services, Manchester.gov.uk, NHSinform.scot, agriculture.gov.ie, Croydon.gov.uk, ouh.nhs.uk, legislation.qld.gov.au, the list goes on.

The full list of affected websites can be found here.

After UK-based infosec consultant Scott Helme raised the alarm about this hack when one of his friends mentioned getting anti-virus alerts on a UK Government website, BrowseAloud’s operator Texthelp took down its site to resolve the issue.

Here’s what Texthelp's chief technology officer Martin McKay said in a blog post:

"In light of other recent cyber attacks all over the world, we have been preparing for such an incident for the last year. Our data security action plan was actioned straight away and was effective, the risk was mitigated for all customers within a period of four hours."

"Texthelp has in place continuously automated security tests for Browsealoud - these tests detected the modified file, and as a result, the product was taken offline."

This action eventually removed Browsealoud from all websites immediately, addressing the security issue without its customers having to take any action.

The company also assured that "no customer data has been accessed or lost," and that its customers will receive a further update as soon as the security investigation gets completed.

YOU MAY ALSO READ :
Download 10 Best Android Hacking Apps for Android Mobile
Labels:
Location: United States

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Microsoft To Update Windows ‘Notepad App’ After Years, Teases New Features

E very week or the other, Microsoft releases a new build for the fast ring insiders. The latest Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 17713 bring a pack of surprises for Windows users. Redmond always listens to users, and this time, they have heard to Notepad users who were fed up with the uninteresting interface. Microsoft is giving its text editor Notepad new features after a very long time. Yes, the very same app that people use to write random text, create batch files and HTML pages, etc. Among the new Notepad features being added to Windows, you would be able to zoom into text by using the mouse wheel while holding down the Ctrl key. A long requested feature is coming for users; Microsoft is adding ctrl+backspace support to delete a previous word. Other than these, you will now have the ability to wrap around find and replace. Also, the status bar is now enabled by default in Notepad. There are few performance improvements for large...
Post a Comment
Read more

Google starts rolling out ‘Call Screen’ feature for Pixel smartphones

San Francisco, Dec 2 (IANS) Google has started rolling out a feature for its Pixel smartphones that lets users make use of the Google Assistant to see who is calling and why before they answer a call. The feature allows users to see a real-time transcript of how the caller responds so that they can then decide whether to pick up, respond by tapping a quick reply (for example, “I’ll call you back later”), or mark the call as spam and dismiss. “Call Screen is only available to English speakers in the United States who have Pixel 2, 2 XL, 3, or 3XL devices. If you don’t see Call Screen in the Phone app’s settings, it’s not available yet,” Google said. Call Screen, which can help users save the time spent on picking up unimportant calls from unknown numbers, does not use Wi-Fi or mobile data of the user. This feature does not work with third-party call recording and screen recording apps as these apps may interfere with how the feature works. It is better to turn off these app...
Post a Comment
Read more

Facebook Fined £500,000 for Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal

Facebook has finally been slapped with its first fine of £500,000 for allowing political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica to improperly gather and misuse data of 87 million users. The fine has been imposed by the UK's Information Commissioner's Office ( ICO ) and was calculated using the UK's old Data Protection Act 1998 which can levy a maximum penalty of £500,000 — ironically that’s equals to the amount Facebook earns every 18 minutes. The news does not come as a surprise as the U.K.'s data privacy watchdog already notified the social network giant in July this year that the commission was intended to issue the maximum fine. For those unaware, Facebook has been under scrutiny since earlier this year when it was revealed that the personal data of 87 million users was improperly gathered and misused by political consultancy firm Cambridge Analytica, who reportedly helped Donald Trump win the US presidency in 2016. The ICO, who launched an investigatio...
Post a Comment
Read more