Cyber Thieves Turn To "Cryptojacking" As Attacks Multiply

27 July 2023

Welcome, and thank you for being part of the MyZucoins community! Dive into some important crypto, finance, and tech news to stay ahead.

While ransomware attacks are dwindling, cyber thieves have found a new way to steal: cryptojacking. This cyber crime, which involves hijacking other people's computers to mine cryptocurrencies, saw an alarming 399% increase in the first half of 2023, reaching a total of 332.3 million attacks. This activity has been around for at least a decade, but it's growing fast. It's now more than the total number of attacks in 2020, 2021, and 2022 combined.

The victims of this stealthy crime often remain unaware, noticing only slower device performance or higher than usual electricity bills. The favorite digital currency for these thieves is Monero, prized for its privacy features. Notably, when coin market prices drop, these criminals don't back down. Instead, the number of attacks spike as they scramble to maintain their gains.

So who's on the receiving end of this digital heist? The EU, US, Denmark, Germany, France, and the United Arab Emirates have the dubious honor of being the most targeted, with Europe overall suffering a 788% increase in incidents. The sectors with the highest surge in attacks? Education, with a 320-times increase, and healthcare, with a 69-times increase.

Despite the fading threat of ransomware, these figures suggest that crypto-thieves aren't planning to retire anytime soon. From state-backed threats to rogue employees, cybercriminals of all types are turning to cryptojacking for its discreet nature and lucrative returns. Read more here.

Turning Cyber Threats Into Crypto Opportunities

Removing the incentive to mine by increasing computing power is essential to stopping these kinds of attacks. Fortunately, the Splitchain network is different to other crypto systems as it doesn't utilize crypto mining methods to validate transactions. This neatly sidesteps this entire issue.

OpenAI, Creator Of Popular ChatGPT AI Tool, Can’t Tell If Something Was Written By AI

OpenAI recently halted its tool designed to distinguish between human and AI-authored writing, explaining that the tool's accuracy was unsatisfactory. The wind-down took effect from July 20th 2023, as stated in an updated blog post by the company. OpenAI is currently exploring more efficient techniques for text provenance while working on mechanisms to help users identify AI-generated audio or visual content. However, details of these mechanisms have not been released yet.

The company disclosed that the classifier was not particularly successful at identifying AI-generated text, even suggesting that it could mistakenly label human-written text as AI-created. OpenAI had previously hinted at the possibility of improving the classifier's accuracy by feeding it more data.

The rise of OpenAI's ChatGPT, which quickly became one of the fastest-growing apps, stirred concerns among various groups. Educators, in particular, were apprehensive about students relying on the AI to complete their assignments. Due to issues surrounding accuracy, safety, and potential academic dishonesty, New York schools prohibited the use of ChatGPT on campus. Furthermore, the potential for AI-generated misinformation has raised eyebrows, as studies indicate AI-written content, such as tweets, may be more persuasive than human-written ones.

Amidst these concerns, OpenAI's trust and safety leader recently stepped down. This comes at a time when the Federal Trade Commission is scrutinizing OpenAI's methods of information and data verification. The company has refrained from commenting beyond its blog post. As the world grapples with the flood of AI-generated content, it appears that even the pioneers of generative AI like OpenAI are still searching for effective ways to manage the situation. Read more here.

Crypto Can Be Used As A Source-Of-Truth

As we covered in yesterday's news, the need for provable authenticity is growing at a rapid pace due to AI's ability to write seemingly plausible, but fake information.

We won't rehash everything from yesterday's newsletter (check that one out for more), but the key problem Splitchain can solve here is the ability to prove digital content's authenticity. Meaning, sources of information can be verified to ensure they come from the places you expect. This can be extended further too.

For example, a news publisher could publicly verify their sources (without disclosing their sources' name), proving their own articles authentically use the underlying data sources in their reporting, which would create a higher bar for truthful news and information.

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All the best,
Peter & Rob
MyZucoins

Disclaimer: Of course, this is not advice, financial or otherwise. It’s also important to consider the risks and challenges associated with any potential benefits.