Ransomware actors and cryptocurrency scammers have joined nation-state actors in abusing cloud mining services to launder digital assets, new findings reveal.
“Cryptocurrency mining is a crucial part of our industry, but it also holds special appeal to bad actors, as it provides a means to acquire money with a totally clean on-chain original source,” blockchain analytics firm Chainalysis said in a report shared with The Hacker News.
Earlier this March, Google Mandiant disclosed North Korea-based APT43’s use of the hash rental and cloud mining services to obscure the forensic trail and wash the stolen cryptocurrency “clean.”
Cloud mining services allow users to rent a computer system and use that computer’s hash power to mine cryptocurrencies without having to manage the mining hardware themselves.