Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many incidents of malware being used to illegally mine cryptocurrency have been reported by the Government since 2015.

Two incidents of malware being used to illegally mine cryptocurrency have been reported by the National Cyber Security Centre since its formation in October 2016.

The NCSC was established to simplify existing structures, bringing together the cyber security operations and information assurance arms of GCHQ, Computer Emergency Response Team UK (CERT-UK), the cyber elements of the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI) and the Centre for Cyber Assessment. Prior to the NCSC’s formation, cyber incidents were recorded via differing means and to a variety of thresholds, and as such, figures prior to October 2016 are not available for comparison.