It's not just big organisations who lose millions as a result of cryptocurrency theft, hackers also target individual users to steal small amounts, new data revealed.

According to Chainalysis, the blockchain data platform, scammers stole a record $14bn (£103bn) in cryptocurrency in 2021, with losses from crypto-related crime rising 79% compared with 2020.

In its latest report it said sophisticated attacks take careful planning and skill to pull off, but through other types of malware, hackers can take a cheaper “spray-and-pray” approach, spamming millions of potential victims and stealing smaller amounts. The malware families sampled received 5,974 transfers from victims in 2021, up from 5,449 in 2020.

It identified found four types of common “cryptocurrency-focused malware families”.

The most dangerous of these is cryptojacking, possibly the most prolific of all malware families, where hackers make unauthorised use of a victim device’s computing power to mine cryptocurrency. In 2020, Cisco’s (CSCO) cloud security division reported that cryptojacking malware affected 69% of its clients.

Hackers also love trojans – viruses that look like a legitimate program but infiltrates a victim’s computer.

There are also clippers, which hackers use to replace cryptocurrency addresses copied into a user’s clipboard with their own, allowing them to reroute planned transactions to their own wallets.

A 2018 report from Palo Alto Networks estimated that 5% of all Monero (XMR-USD) in circulation was mined by cryptojackers, which would represent over $100m in revenue.

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Another type of malware is called info stealer, which collect credentials a user may have saved on their browser. Cryptbot, an infostealer that steals victims’ cryptocurrency wallet details, was the most prolific malware family in this group in 2021, raking in almost half a million dollars in pilfered bitcoin (BTC-USD).

Many of these malware strains are available for purchase on the darknet, making it even easier for less sophisticated hackers to deploy them against victims.