Hackers Target Microsoft Azure Servers to Illegally Mine Crypto

The machine learning cluster of Microsoft Azure cloud computing services has become the recent target of hackers for mining digital currencies.

In a blog post published on Wednesday, the technology giant revealed the attack on its services which allowed perpetrators to mine Cryptocurrencies Cryptocurrencies By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the netw By using cryptography, virtual currencies, known as cryptocurrencies, are nearly counterfeit-proof digital currencies that are built on blockchain technology. Comprised of decentralized networks, blockchain technology is not overseen by a central authority.Therefore, cryptocurrencies function in a decentralized nature which theoretically makes them immune to government interference. The term, cryptocurrency derives from the origin of the encryption techniques that are employed to secure the netw Read this Term at the expense of the customers who rented Microsoft’s cloud computing services.

Machine learning needs massive computing powers which often pushes third-party developers to rent cloud computing services instead of maintaining hardware.

Hackers simply exploited misconfigured nodes to mine crypto by redirecting the computing powers to mine crypto instead of performing the originally designated tasks of running machine learning codes.

Similar to other crypto jacking incidents, the hijackers mined Monero on Microsoft servers.

According to the Redmond-headquartered company, compromised clusters it discovered counted in “tens”

The company specified that the infected clusters were running Kubeflow, an open-source framework for machine-learning applications in Kubernetes. This application is used to deploy scalable applications across a large number of computers.

The changes in the systems made using a vulnerability on a dashboard which can only be accessed by the administrators.

“Azure Security Center has detected multiple campaigns against Kubernetes clusters in the past that have a similar access vector: an exposed service to the Internet,” Yossi Weizman, a security research software engineer at Microsoft, noted. “However, this is the first time that we have identified an attack that targets Kubeflow environments specifically.”

Enterprise servers are often becoming targets

Cryptojacking Cryptojacking Cryptojacking is defined as the unauthorized use of an individual’s computer to mine cryptocurrency. Hackers accomplish this feat through several means.This includes obtaining access via malicious links in an email that loads crypto mining code on the computer, or by infecting a website or online ad with JavaScript code that auto-executes once loaded in the victim’s browser.Consequently, this crypto-mining code is able to work out of sight of unsuspecting victims, often without notice. The only Cryptojacking is defined as the unauthorized use of an individual’s computer to mine cryptocurrency. Hackers accomplish this feat through several means.This includes obtaining access via malicious links in an email that loads crypto mining code on the computer, or by infecting a website or online ad with JavaScript code that auto-executes once loaded in the victim’s browser.Consequently, this crypto-mining code is able to work out of sight of unsuspecting victims, often without notice. The only Read this Term becomes popular with the skyrocketing value of digital currencies. Though mostly confined to personal computers, hackers are also targeting enterprise servers to make more profits using massive computing power.

Just last month, a security firm report confirmed that at least 1,000 enterprise computers were targeted by the hackers to illegally mine digital currencies.