Thousands of websites, including ones run by US and UK government agencies, were infected for several hours on Sunday with code that causes web browsers to secretly mine digital currencies, technology news site The Register reported.
More than 4,200 sites were infected with a malicious version of a widely used tool known as Browsealoud from British software maker Texthelp, which reads out web pages for people with vision problems, according to The Register.
The news comes amid a surge in cyber attacks using software that forces infected computers to mine cryptocurrencies on behalf of hackers. The prevalence of these schemes has increased