A silent currency-mining cyber-attack was already under way when WannaCry erupted
Paris — Another large-scale, stealthy cyber-attack is under way on a scale that could dwarf last week’s assault on computers worldwide, a global cyber-security firm told AFP on Wednesday. The new attack targets the same vulnerabilities the WannaCry ransomware worm exploited but, rather than freeze files, it uses the hundreds of thousands of computers believed to have been infected to mine virtual currency. Following the detection of the WannaCry attack on Friday, "researchers at Proofpoint discovered a new attack, linked to WannaCry, called Adylkuzz", said Nicolas Godier, a researcher at the computer security firm. "It uses the hacking tools recently disclosed by the [US] National Security Agency (NSA) which have since been fixed by Microsoft in a more stealthy manner and for a different purpose."
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