LONDON – US and UK government agencies websites were infected for severalhours on Sunday with code that causes web browsers to secretly mine digitalcurrencies, technology news site The Register reported.
More than 4,200 sites were infected with a malicious version of a widelyused tool known as Browsealoud from British software maker Texthelp, whichreads out webpages for people with vision problems, according to TheRegister.
The news comes amid a surge in cyber attacks using software that forcesinfected computers to mine crypto currencies on behalf of hackers.
The prevalence of these schemes has increased in recent months as thevolume of trading in bitcoin and other crypto currencies has surged.
The tainted version of Browsealoud caused inserted software for mining thedigital currency Monero to run on computers that visited infected sites,generating money for the hackers behind the attack, The Register said.
Representatives of the US and British law enforcement agencies and Texthelpcould not immediately be reached for comment.
Texthelp told The Register that it had shut down the operation by disablingBrowsealoud while its engineering team investigated.