Russia targeted by expanded Kinsing cryptomining attacks

Widespread attacks have been launched by cryptojacking operation Kinsing, also known as H2Miner and Resourceful Wolf, against Russia, according to The Record, a news site by cybersecurity firm Recorded Future.

Kinsing hackers targeted vulnerable Russian computers impacted by the critical PHPUnit testing framework flaw, tracked as CVE-2017-9841, with malicious code enabling total server hijacking, a report from Russian cybersecurity firm F6 showed. No other organizations across Eastern Europe have been subjected to the latest attack campaign of Kinsing, which has typically targeted North America, Western Europe, and Asia. Such a development comes just months after an XMRig cryptominer attack by the Rare Werewolf operation against hundreds of computers across Russia. "The case of Kinsing attacks on Russian companies highlights the need to defend against even rare and unusual cyber threats, as criminal groups are not limited by industry or geography and can strike users anywhere in the world," said F6 threat intelligence unit analyst Vladislav Kugan.