Thousands of websites on Sunday, including that of the US and UK government agencies, were infected with a malicious script that made visitors browser to secretly mine digital currency.
According to the Register, over 4,200 sites were infected for several hours with a malicious version of Browsealoud, a tool that helps in reading out Web pages for people vision problems.
This malicious version of Browsealoud software uses the users CPU to mine for Monero cyryptocurrency and generate revenue for those responsible for the hack.
British software maker Texthelp, who makes the Browsealoud software said they had shut down the operation by disabling Browsealoud, pending the outcome of the investigation by its engineering team.
Last year saw a surge in the price and use of cryptocurrencies. The surge has attracted so many people who see it as a lucrative way of investing and getting huge returns.
Cybercriminals too have been devising several means of getting easy digital currency, ways which include emptying coin users wallets, hacking coin exchange to steal cryptocurrency, exploiting vulnerability to install crypto-mining script on websites with heavy traffic and others.
Last week some Russian engineers got themselves in big trouble for using nuclear weapons equipment to mine Bitcoins.