{"id":1304,"date":"2018-02-13T05:52:08","date_gmt":"2018-02-13T12:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tradersnation.com\/?p=1304"},"modified":"2018-02-13T05:57:13","modified_gmt":"2018-02-13T12:57:13","slug":"government-websites-hit-by-cryptocurrency-mining-malware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tradersnation.com\/index.php\/2018\/02\/13\/government-websites-hit-by-cryptocurrency-mining-malware\/","title":{"rendered":"Government websites hit by cryptocurrency mining malware"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of sites, including NHS services and the ICO, hijacked by rogue code<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

by Patrick Greenfield<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thousands of websites, including those belonging to NHS services, the Student Loans Company and several English councils, have been infected by malware that forces visitors\u2019 computers to mine cryptocurrency<\/a> while using the site.<\/p>\n

Late on Sunday, the website of the UK\u2019s data protection watchdog, the Information Commissioner\u2019s Office, was taken down to deal with the issue after it was reportedly infected by the malware.<\/p>\n

The cryptojacking<\/a> script was inserted into website codes through BrowseAloud, a popular plugin that helps blind and partially-sighted people access the web.<\/p>\n

More than 5,000 websites have been flooded by the malware. Software known as Coinhive, which quietly uses the processing power of a user\u2019s device to mine open source cryptocurrency Monero, appears to have been injected into the compromised BrowseAloud plugin.<\/p>\n

Texthelp, which operates BrowseAloud, took its website down on Sunday while it tried to resolve the problem.<\/p>\n

The National Cyber Security Centre confirmed the issue was being investigated, adding there was nothing to suggest members of the public were at risk after the malware attack.<\/p>\n

Scott Helme, an IT security consultant, raised the alarm about the malware after he received a message from a friend whose antivirus software had detected an issue after visiting a UK government website.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis type of attack isn\u2019t new \u2013 but this is the biggest I\u2019ve seen. A single company being hacked has meant thousands of sites impacted across the UK, Ireland and the United States,\u201d Helme told Sky News.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cSomeone just messaged me to say their local government website in Australia is using the software as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the National Cyber Security Centre said: \u201cNCSC technical experts are examining data involving incidents of malware being used to illegally mine cryptocurrency.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe affected services has been taken offline, largely mitigating the issue. Government websites will continue to operate securely. At this stage there is nothing to suggest that members of the public are at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Original story<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thousands of sites, including NHS services and the ICO, hijacked by rogue code by Patrick Greenfield Thousands of websites, including those belonging to NHS services, the Student Loans Company and several English councils, have been infected by malware that forces visitors\u2019 computers to mine cryptocurrency while using the site. Late on Sunday, the website of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1305,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[103,181,190],"class_list":{"0":"post-1304","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-cryptocurrency","9":"tag-government","10":"tag-malware"},"aioseo_notices":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradersnation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradersnation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradersnation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradersnation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradersnation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tradersnation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradersnation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1305"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tradersnation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradersnation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tradersnation.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}