A government cybersecurity expert has warned that hackers are using Russian government hardware to extract cryptocurrencies. The deputy director of the National Computer Incident Coordination Center said these threats have been very active recently.

The global cybersecurity landscape remains “tense.”

According to TASS, Nikolai Murashov noted that hackers have managed to infiltrate unknown malware into the infrastructure of Russian government agencies, medical institutions, defense companies and even research institutes.

Cybercriminals then use computing resources to extract illegal encrypted material. He went on to say:

For the first time, malware encrypting user data has been discovered in healthcare information infrastructure.

However, the expert did not develop these attacks during his presentation at the XXIII National Forum on Information Security “Inforum-2021” in Moscow. Nor did he specify whether any of these attacks were related to cases of extortion.

Mr. Murashov drew attention to the global cybersecurity landscape because he now sees it as “tense.” He backed up his statement by saying that hackers are actively targeting government agencies around the world to “steal information.”

The National Coordination Center for Computer Incidents was established by the Federal Security Service (FSB) in 2018. Its tasks include the detection, prevention and mitigation of cyber attacks in Russia.

Report: crypto-extraction is not a major funding method for hackers.

But crypto-mining remains a low-profile type of cyber-attack right now. At least that’s one of the conclusions the cyber security firm Group-BI published in its report “High-Tech Crime Trends 2020-2021.”

According to the company, crypto mining is not a very interesting way to finance the threat, at least not in Russia.

In fact, hackers actively target the encryption of malware and then threaten to release encrypted information by demanding a ransom.

What do you think of the warning from a cybersecurity expert close to the Russian government? Let us know in the comments section below.

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