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February 12, 2018

The Rise of Cryptocurrency Attacks & Cyber Defense Solutions

Darktrace can detect cryptocurrency-related attacks with machine learning. Identify nefarious use of resources and protect against Coinhive drive-by mining.
Inside the SOC
Darktrace cyber analysts are world-class experts in threat intelligence, threat hunting and incident response, and provide 24/7 SOC support to thousands of Darktrace customers around the globe. Inside the SOC is exclusively authored by these experts, providing analysis of cyber incidents and threat trends, based on real-world experience in the field.
Written by
Max Heinemeyer
Global Field CISO
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12
Feb 2018

Prelude

The last 12 months have shown tremendous volatility in the value of cryptocurrencies, of which Bitcoin is the most prominent example. At the start of 2017, Bitcoin lingered around the $2,000 mark before suddenly taking off, climbing to historic highs of close to $20,000 in December 2017. Demand has since subsided, and at the time of writing, the price of Bitcoin is near to $10,772.

While Bitcoin is the most popular cryptocurrency, numerous alternatives, often called ‘altcoins’ have emerged and grown in value in the last 12 months. For example, Dogecoin, originally created to be a spoof cryptocurrency after a widespread internet meme, reached a notable market capitalization milestone of $2bn in January 2018.

Nowadays it is almost impossible to profitably mine Bitcoin on commodity hardware such as laptops, smartphones or desktop computers. At this late state, it just takes too long to perform the relevant calculations, and the cost of electricity is higher than the anticipated revenue in most cases. Other altcoins such as Monero use different algorithms, making them viable alternatives for aspiring crypto miners. It is often still feasible to mine altcoins on commodity hardware and see a return on investment.

The value of most altcoins is closely tied to the value of Bitcoin and, in many cases, the relationship is broadly proportional – a rise in Bitcoin prompting a similar lift in the altcoins. Monero, which has been rapidly adopted by Darknet markets, has profited from this effect. While Monero was valued at around $10 in January 2017, its price has been pumped up to $419 a year later.

There is much that is still not clear about the cryptocurrency phenomenon. Debate as to its relative value and its status as a currency rages, and will not be resolved any time soon. However, from a cyber security perspective there can be no doubt that the combination of altcoins being mineable on commodity hardware, the fact that mining is now becoming profitable as a side-effect of Bitcoin’s rise, and a maturity in cryptocurrency-related tech has led to a surge in cryptocurrency-related attacks.

Attack vectors

Darktrace has observed an abrupt increase of cryptocurrency-related attacks over the last 12 months. Both the frequency and the diversity of these attacks has grown significantly and largely mirrors the remarkable rise in the value of Bitcoin over that period.

Previously, cyber-criminals monetized their operations via banking Trojans/credit card fraud, selling stolen data and ransomware on the Darknet. However, criminals are notoriously adaptable and will follow the money wherever it leads, leading to an increase in cryptojacking’s popularity.

Cryptocurrency mining might not be as profitable as ransomware is upfront, but it can be secretly pursued for months without creating the havoc that characterizes ransomware attacks. Most users and security products might not notice a cryptocurrency miner being installed on a corporate device as it does not show obvious threats or messages to a user, except for an occasional increase in CPU or RAM usage.

Identifying these attacks can be very difficult for traditional security tools as they were not originally designed to catch this type of threat. Nor was Darktrace, but its approach – which relies on its evolving understanding of patterns of behavior – means that it can detect such attacks without having to know what to look for in advance.

Darktrace has detected a number of different attack vectors related to cryptocurrency attacks.

  1. Nefarious use of corporate resources
    Darktrace has detected a range of incidents where employees were intentionally installing cryptocurrency mining software on their corporate devices to mine for personal gain. These employees do not have to pay for the electricity used to run the corporate device in the office – they are basically turning their employer’s electricity into cash by commandeering it for mining operations.

    This is commonly seen as a compliance breach and increases the attack surface of a device that has mining software installed. It puts the corporate device at risk and also increases operational costs as the power consumption usually goes up for mining devices. The most popular cryptocurrency choices for this kind of mining in the last 12 months were Etherium and Monero – altcoins that can profitably be mined without the need for inordinate electricity.
  2. Coinhive drive-by mining
    Coinhive is a technology that allows website owners to use their visitors’ computing power to mine a tiny fraction of cryptocurrency for the website owner. Visitors will experience a small increase in computer resource consumption while browsing the website. Some websites experiment with this model to create new forms of revenue streams alternative to advertisement and banner placements.

    Coinhive usage is often not an opt-in process. Darktrace has observed various customer devices that regularly visit websites leveraging Coinhive technology. While the power consumption increase for a device browsing a website with Coinhive is ultimately negligible, the cumulative effect of a sizeable portion of the workforce unwittingly browsing websites using Coinhive results in increased power consumption cost for the organization as a whole.
  3. Malicious insider
    A malicious insider compromised his employer’s website to put a Coinhive script on there. This then mined Monero for every visitor on the employer’s website for the malicious insider’s personal gain.
  4. Traditional malware
    Cyber criminals are constantly looking to improve the return on investment of their operations. Reports suggest that criminals are starting to adjust their monetization methods based on the financial means of their targets. Suppose you can’t pay the fee extorted in a ransomware attack? They’ll just install a crypto miner on your device instead to ensure that the attack is not completely fruitless.

    As malware authors become more sophisticated, they often deploy multi-staged malware that can swap weaponized payloads. Once malware has infected a system successfully, its authors can often decide what actions to take next. Encrypt the device and extort a ransom? Install a banking Trojan to harvest credit card details? Install more spyware modules to look for data exfiltration? Or, now, install a cryptocurrency miner.

    These pieces of malware operate stealthily and often go undetected for several weeks. An infection might start with a phishing email that contains a macro-enabled document. As soon as a user enabled the macro, the malware will download a file-less stager that lives in memory and cannot be detected by traditional antivirus. Command and control communication is usually maintained via IP addresses that change on a daily basis in order to outrun threat intelligence and blacklisting attempts. As no obvious damage is done straight away, these attacks often stay under the radar for prolonged times, so long as self-learning technology such as Darktrace is not employed.

    This becomes much more concerning as malware authors could swap one payload for another overnight if they deem it more profitable, switching from a furtive crypto mining Trojan to ransomware the next day. While we have not observed this kind of attack in the wild yet, it is plausible, and in cyberspace what can be done, will be done.

Conclusions

Revolutionary technologies like cryptocurrencies have both their dark and light aspects. For all of the creative energy released by the crypto-blockchain revolution, Bitcoin and its alternatives have quickly become the universal currency of the criminal underworld. Indeed, the former Chief Economist of the World Bank, Joseph Stiglitz – an adamant critic of cryptocurrencies – has said that the whole value of Bitcoin resides in its “potential for circumvention” and “lack of oversight”.

While Stiglitz’s case may be overstated, there can be no question that cyber criminals have sensed a new opportunity to make money. A lot of organizations still regard crypto mining as a compliance incident. This can lead to grave consequences as a cryptocurrency mining device might lead to more severe incidents that can have a serious effect on business operations.

This kind of threat is difficult to detect as no obvious damage is done. However, with Darktrace’s machine learning we can correlate even the weakest indicators of such an attack into a compelling picture of threat. While traditional tools may struggle to see these deviations, Darktrace can pinpoint the changes in behavior effected by cryptocurrency miners without having to rely on any blacklists or signatures.

Inside the SOC
Darktrace cyber analysts are world-class experts in threat intelligence, threat hunting and incident response, and provide 24/7 SOC support to thousands of Darktrace customers around the globe. Inside the SOC is exclusively authored by these experts, providing analysis of cyber incidents and threat trends, based on real-world experience in the field.
Written by
Max Heinemeyer
Global Field CISO

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May 21, 2025

Evaluating Email Security: How to Select the Best Solution for Your Organization

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When evaluating email security solutions, it’s crucial to move beyond marketing claims and focus on real-world performance. One of the most effective ways to achieve this is through an A/B comparison approach – a side-by-side evaluation of vendors based on consistent, predefined criteria.

This method cuts through biases, reveals true capability differences, and ensures that all solutions are assessed on a level playing field. It’s not just about finding an objectively good solution – it’s about finding the best solution for your organization’s specific needs.

An A/B comparison approach is particularly effective for three main reasons:

  1. Eliminates bias: By comparing solutions under identical conditions, it’s easier to spot differences in performance without the fog of marketing jargon.
  2. Highlights real capabilities: Direct side-by-side testing exposes genuine strengths and weaknesses, making it easier to judge which features are impactful versus merely decorative.
  3. Encourages objective decision-making: This structured method reduces emotional or brand-driven decisions, focusing purely on metrics and performance.

Let’s look at the key factors to consider when setting up your evaluation to ensure a fair, accurate, and actionable comparison.

Deployment: Setting the stage for fair evaluation

To achieve a genuine comparison, deployment must be consistent across all evaluated solutions:

  • Establish the same scope: All solutions should be granted identical visibility across relevant tenants and domains to ensure parity.
  • Set a concrete timeline: Deploy and test each solution with the same dataset, at the same points in time. This allows you to observe differences in learning periods and adaptive capabilities.

Equal visibility and synchronized timelines prevent discrepancies that could skew your understanding of each vendor’s true capabilities. But remember – quicker results might not equal better learning or understanding!

Tuning and configurations: Optimizing for real-world conditions

Properly tuning and configuring each solution is critical for fair evaluation:

  • Compare on optimal performance: Consult with each vendor to understand what optimal deployment looks like for their solution, particularly if machine learning is involved.
  • Consider the long term: Configuration adjustments should be made with long-term usage in mind. Short-term fixes can mask long-term challenges.
  • Data visibility: Ensure each solution can retain and provide search capabilities on all data collected throughout the evaluation period.

These steps guarantee that you are comparing fully optimized versions of each platform, not underperforming or misconfigured ones.

Evaluation: Applying consistent metrics

Once deployment and configurations are aligned, the evaluation itself must be consistent, to prevent unfair scoring and help to identify true differences in threat detection and response capabilities.

  • Coordinate your decision criteria: Ensure all vendors are measured against the same set of criteria, established before testing begins.
  • Understand vendor threat classification: Each vendor may have different ways of classifying threats, so be sure to understand these nuances.
  • Maintain communication: If results seem inaccurate, engage with the vendors. Their response and remediation capabilities are part of the evaluation.

Making a decision: Look beyond the metrics

When it comes to reviewing the performance of each solution, it’s important to both consider and look beyond the raw data. This is about choosing the solution that best aligns with your specific business needs, which may include factors and features not captured in the results.

  • Evaluate based on results: Consider accuracy, threats detected, precision, and response effectiveness.
  • Evaluate beyond results: Assess the overall experience, including support, integrations, training, and long-term alignment with your security strategy.
  • Review and communicate: Internally review the findings and communicate them back to the vendors.

Choosing the right email security solution isn’t just about ticking boxes, it’s about strategic alignment with your organization’s goals and the evolving threat landscape. A structured, A/B comparison approach will help ensure that the solution you select is truly the best fit.

For a full checklist of the features and capabilities to compare, as well as how to perform a commercial and technical evaluation, check out the full Buyer’s Checklist for Evaluating Email Security.

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About the author
Carlos Gray
Senior Product Marketing Manager, Email

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May 21, 2025

Adapting to new USCG cybersecurity mandates: Darktrace for ports and maritime systems

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What is the Marine Transportation System (MTS)?

Marine Transportation Systems (MTS) play a substantial roll in U.S. commerce, military readiness, and economic security. Defined as a critical national infrastructure, the MTS encompasses all aspects of maritime transportation from ships and ports to the inland waterways and the rail and roadways that connect them.

MTS interconnected systems include:

  • Waterways: Coastal and inland rivers, shipping channels, and harbors
  • Ports: Terminals, piers, and facilities where cargo and passengers are transferred
  • Vessels: Commercial ships, barges, ferries, and support craft
  • Intermodal Connections: Railroads, highways, and logistics hubs that tie maritime transport into national and global supply chains

The Coast Guard plays a central role in ensuring the safety, security, and efficiency of the MTS, handling over $5.4 trillion in annual economic activity. As digital systems increasingly support operations across the MTS, from crane control to cargo tracking, cybersecurity has become essential to protecting this lifeline of U.S. trade and infrastructure.

Maritime Transportation Systems also enable international trade, making them prime targets for cyber threats from ransomware gangs to nation-state actors.

To defend against growing threats, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) has moved from encouraging cybersecurity best practices to enforcing them, culminating in a new mandate that goes into effect on July 16, 2025. These regulations aim to secure the digital backbone of the maritime industry.

Why maritime ports are at risk

Modern ports are a blend of legacy and modern OT, IoT, and IT digitally connected technologies that enable crane operations, container tracking, terminal storage, logistics, and remote maintenance.

Many of these systems were never designed with cybersecurity in mind, making them vulnerable to lateral movement and disruptive ransomware attack spillover.

The convergence of business IT networks and operational infrastructure further expands the attack surface, especially with the rise of cloud adoption and unmanaged IoT and IIoT devices.

Cyber incidents in recent years have demonstrated how ransomware or malicious activity can halt crane operations, disrupt logistics, and compromise safety at scale threatening not only port operations, but national security and economic stability.

Relevant cyber-attacks on maritime ports

Maersk & Port of Los Angeles (2017 – NotPetya):
A ransomware attack crippled A.P. Moller-Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company. Operations at 17 ports, including the Port of Los Angeles, were halted due to system outages, causing weeks of logistical chaos.

Port of San Diego (2018 – Ransomware Attack):
A ransomware attack targeted the Port of San Diego, disrupting internal IT systems including public records, business services, and dockside cargo operations. While marine traffic was unaffected, commercial activity slowed significantly during recovery.

Port of Houston (2021 – Nation-State Intrusion):
A suspected nation-state actor exploited a known vulnerability in a Port of Houston web application to gain access to its network. While the attack was reportedly thwarted, it triggered a federal investigation and highlighted the vulnerability of maritime systems.

Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust, India (2022 – Ransomware Incident):
India’s largest container port experienced disruptions due to a ransomware attack affecting operations and logistics systems. Container handling and cargo movement slowed as IT systems were taken offline during recovery efforts.

A regulatory shift: From guidance to enforcement

Since the Maritime Transportation Security Act (MTSA) of 2002, ports have been required to develop and maintain security plans. Cybersecurity formally entered the regulatory fold in 2020 with revisions to 33 CFR Part 105 and 106, requiring port authorities to assess and address computer system vulnerabilities.

In January 2025, the USCG finalized new rules to enforce cybersecurity practices across the MTS. Key elements include (but are not limited to):

  • A dedicated cyber incident response plan (PR.IP-9)
  • Routine cybersecurity risk assessments and exercises (ID.RA)
  • Designation of a cybersecurity officer and regular workforce training (section 3.1)
  • Controls for access management, segmentation, logging, and encryption (PR.AC-1:7)
  • Supply chain risk management (ID.SC)
  • Incident reporting to the National Response Center

Port operators are encouraged to align their programs with the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (CSF 2.0) and NIST SP 800-82r3, which provide comprehensive guidance for IT and OT security in industrial environments.

How Darktrace can support maritime & ports

Unified IT + OT + Cloud coverage

Maritime ports operate in hybrid environments spanning business IT systems (finance, HR, ERP), industrial OT (cranes, gates, pumps, sensors), and an increasing array of cloud and SaaS platforms.

Darktrace is the only vendor that provides native visibility and threat detection across OT/IoT, IT, cloud, and SaaS environments — all in a single platform. This means:

  • Cranes and other physical process control networks are monitored in the same dashboard as Active Directory and Office 365.
  • Threats that start in the cloud (e.g., phishing, SaaS token theft) and pivot or attempt to pivot into OT are caught early — eliminating blind spots that siloed tools miss.

This unification is critical to meeting USCG requirements for network-wide monitoring, risk identification, and incident response.

AI that understands your environment. Not just known threats

Darktrace’s AI doesn’t rely on rules or signatures. Instead, it uses Self-Learning AI TM that builds a unique “pattern of life” for every device, protocol, user, and network segment, whether it’s a crane router or PLC, SCADA server, Workstation, or Linux file server.

  • No predefined baselines or manual training
  • Real-time anomaly detection for zero-days, ransomware, and supply chain compromise
  • Continuous adaptation to new devices, configurations, and operations

This approach is critical in diverse distributed OT environments where change and anomalous activity on the network are more frequent. It also dramatically reduces the time and expertise needed to classify and inventory assets, even for unknown or custom-built systems.

Supporting incident response requirements

A key USCG requirement is that cybersecurity plans must support effective incident response.

Key expectations include:

  • Defined response roles and procedures: Personnel must know what to do and when (RS.CO-1).
  • Timely reporting: Incidents must be reported and categorized according to established criteria (RS.CO-2, RS.AN-4).
  • Effective communication: Information must be shared internally and externally, including voluntary collaboration with law enforcement and industry peers (RS.CO-3 through RS.CO-5).
  • Thorough analysis: Alerts must be investigated, impacts understood, and forensic evidence gathered to support decision-making and recovery (RS.AN-1 through RS.AN-5).
  • Swift mitigation: Incidents must be contained and resolved efficiently, with newly discovered vulnerabilities addressed or documented (RS.MI-1 through RS.MI-3).
  • Ongoing improvement: Organizations must refine their response plans using lessons learned from past incidents (RS.IM-1 and RS.IM-2).

That means detections need to be clear, accurate, and actionable.

Darktrace cuts through the noise using AI that prioritizes only high-confidence incidents and provides natural-language narratives and investigative reports that explain:

  • What’s happening, where it’s happening, when it’s happening
  • Why it’s unusual
  • How to respond

Result: Port security teams often lean and multi-tasked can meet USCG response-time expectations and reporting needs without needing to scale headcount or triage hundreds of alerts.

Built-for-edge deployment

Maritime environments are constrained. Many traditional SaaS deployment types often are unsuitable for tugboats, cranes, or air-gapped terminal systems.

Darktrace builds and maintains its own ruggedized, purpose-built appliances and unique virtual deployment options that:

  • Deploy directly into crane networks or terminal enclosures
  • Require no configuration or tuning, drop-in ready
  • Support secure over-the-air updates and fleet management
  • Operate without cloud dependency, supporting isolated and air-gapped systems

Use case: Multiple ports have been able to deploy Darktrace directly into the crane’s switch enclosure, securing lateral movement paths without interfering with the crane control software itself.

Segmentation enforcement & real-time threat containment

Darktrace visualizes real-time connectivity and attack pathways across IT, OT, and IoT it and integrates with firewalls (e.g., Fortinet, Cisco, Palo Alto) to enforce segmentation using AI insights alongside Darktrace’s own native autonomous and human confirmed response capabilities.

Benefits of autonomous and human confirmed response:

  • Auto-isolate rogue devices before the threat can escalate
  • Quarantine a suspicious connectivity with confidence operations won’t be halted
  • Autonomously buy time for human responders during off-hours or holidays
  • This ensures segmentation isn't just documented but that in the case of its failure or exploitation responses are performed as a compensating control

No reliance on 3rd parties or external connectivity

Darktrace’s supply chain integrity is a core part of its value to critical infrastructure customers. Unlike solutions that rely on indirect data collection or third-party appliances, Darktrace:

  • Uses in-house engineered sensors and appliances
  • Does not require transmission of data to or from the cloud

This ensures confidence in both your cyber visibility and the security of the tools you deploy.

See examples here of how Darktrace stopped supply chain attacks:

Readiness for USCG and Beyond

With a self-learning system that adapts to each unique port environment, Darktrace helps maritime operators not just comply but build lasting cyber resilience in a high-threat landscape.

Cybersecurity is no longer optional for U.S. ports its operationally and nationally critical. Darktrace delivers the intelligence, automation, and precision needed to meet USCG requirements and protect the digital lifeblood of the modern port.

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About the author
Daniel Simonds
Director of Operational Technology
Your data. Our AI.
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