A security bulletin released by Kaspersky Labs states that botnets are increasingly being used to distribute illicit crypto mining software.
In the note, analysts for the cybersecurity firm said Wednesday that the number of unique users attacked by crypto miners grew dramatically in the first three months of 2018. Such malware is designed to secretly reallocate an infected machine's processing power to mine cryptocurrencies, with any proceeds going to the attacker.
According to Kaspersky, more users were infected in September than in January and "the threat is still current," though it is unclear whether the recent collapse in the crypto markets' prices will have an impact on the infection rate.