Rise of Crypto Jacking in the Education Industry
With rising instances of crypto jacking attacks, the global education sector has to adopt a holistic approach to defend itself against the unauthorized access of hackers.
Crypto-jacking: An Introduction
In recent years, the global education sector has witnessed a considerable rise in crypto-jacking attacks, a term used to describe a malicious crypto-mining attempt by hackers. Specifically, universities and higher educational institutions are on the target of hackers involved in crypto-jacking. The academic networks in the region of Asia are most heavily targeted by hackers and are followed by institutes located in North America and the European Union.
What is Cryptocurrency Mining?
Cryptocurrency mining describes the process of mining digital coins such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Monero among others. The mining is carried out by miners and importantly, the whole process is executed in a completely decentralized fashion. There is no central authority that oversees the mining process and this characteristic aligns well with the basic principle of the peer-to-peer transaction on which digital coins are based. Individual miners create the blocks and by appending them to the blockchain (called proof-of-work), they help in executing cryptocurrency transactions. In exchange for their efforts, miners are rewarded in accordance with predetermined terms and conditions.
The process of mining Bitcoin (the most prominent and largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization) is based on the proof-of-work principle. This consensus mechanism involves solving a complex and challenging mathematical problem by miners to add a new block to Bitcoin. To solve the problem, a lot of computational power is required which, in turn, consumes an enormous amount of electricity. In other words, cryptocurrency mining is a resource-intensive process that entails miners spend a lot of time, money, and energy in the process. Hence, many hackers try to save on these resources by gaining unauthorized access to others’ computers to covertly mine digital coins.
Education Sector: A soft Target for Crypto-jacking Attacks
The laxer controls and sloppy protection of computer networks in universities and higher education institutions make them a perfect target for crypto-jacking attacks. The hackers exploit the vulnerabilities of these systems and once they gain access to systems, they start covertly using these networks to mine Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies.
According to research conducted by Vectra Networks, a US-based organization specializing in analyzing cyberattacks, revealed that out of the total attacks between August 2017 to January 2018, 60% alone took place in the education sector. This is followed by 6% and 3% in the entertainment and financial services industry respectively. Clearly, the quantum of attack on the education sector is multiple times more than any other industry and calls for adopting a holistic approach to fend the sector against such mischievous attempts in the future.
Location Matters
Vectra’s research also revealed that university and higher education institutes located in the Asian region were the prime targets of crypto-jacking activities. More than a hundred universities in Asia were targeted and the open network system of these institutions made them sitting ducks for the hackers. In fact, the research revealed that the Asian region accounted for three-quarters of the total attacks followed by North America and Europe.
Crypto Popularity: Prime Reason
According to cryptocurrency experts, the high percentage of attacks witnessed by universities in Asia is not surprising. Asia is home to Singapore, Japan, and South Korea, countries where Bitcoin is extremely popular and its mining is a very lucrative business. No wonder, hackers attack these countries the most for carrying out their illegal activities.
As a result of crypto-jacking, the network systems of the victim universities became extremely slow, revealed a research report by Vectra. This, in turn, made these networks even more vulnerable to cyberattacks than before. The impact of illegal crypto-jacking on the working efficiency of systems in North America and Europe was also recorded although the impact was not as drastic as the case with Asian universities.
Defending Educational Sector against Crypto-jacking: Way Forward
Rising cases of crypto-jacking attacks call for a strengthening cyber safety of Universities and Higher Education institutions across the globe. A holistic approach has to be adopted by the education sector so that a credible defense mechanism can be built against the ongoing onslaught of hackers. Following remedial measures are suggested to keep the threat of crypto-jacking at bay in the education sector:
● Spreading Awareness: Awareness is the most effective prevention tool against the rising threat of crypto-jacking in the education sector. Universities need to sensitize students, faculty mentors, and administrative staff about the potential implications of hacking. Once stakeholders in the education sector come to grips with the severity of the issue, it’ll become easy to stop or at least minimize the damage caused by crypto-jacking.
● Upgrading Security Credentials: Not only do universities have to make stakeholders aware of the dangerous consequences of these crypto-jacking attacks, but they also need to work comprehensively on upgrading the security infrastructure of their networks to proactively block any unauthorized access from both inside and outside the organization. The upgradation exercise should take a 360-degree approach and focus on offering up-to-date anti-virus protection, firewalls settings, and internet security to uses across the systems and networks. The investment made in upgrading the cybersecurity infrastructure is really worth the cost as the updated security system is one of the best defenses against malicious hacking attempts.
● Use Adblocker and Disable Java Script: As many crypto-jacking attacks happen through online ads, installing an adblocker is quite an effective way to block unauthorized access to systems. Also, by disabling java scripts one can minimize the possibility of getting infected by code of crypto-jacking that hackers insert inside the system surreptitiously. In addition, using some specialized browser extensions that block crypto jacking can also help to fight the menace of crypto-jacking.
Conclusion
Of course, all the measures mentioned above entail considerable expenses that are difficult to be met only by the universities or educational institutes. This brings prominence to the role that policymakers have to play in supporting the education sector in more ways than one. Government should extend a helping hand not only in terms of financial support but also needs to bring more stringent laws against cyberattacks so that activities like cyberattacks, crypto-jacking, etc., can be eliminated from their roots. Overall, the global education sector requires a multifaceted and all-encompassing approach to protect itself against the rising dangers of crypto-jacking.
