4 things you should know about Cryptojacking

An investigation conducted by Check Point researchers reveals that cryptocurrency miners have knowingly been injected into some top websites, mostly media streaming and file sharing services, without notifying the users. According to Check Point research, those miners regularly use as much as 65% of the end-users’ CPU power.

In this post,we take look at what is Cryptojacking, how you can detect & prevent it.

#1.What is Cryptojacking  ?

Websites/web applications can host sections of malicious code that have the ability to hijack your computing power towards mining bitcoin ex.Ethereum Best example could be various JavaScript miners available (example Coinhive or Mineralt) that can be embedded in a website that can use a visiting device’s processing power to mine a crypto.

Around September 2017, Coinhive, introduced concept by which users visiting website mines the cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) without user consent. Coinhive, is a piece of code written in JavaScript; website owners can simply embed it in their website. Website owners can remove ads from their websites, load Coinhive instead, and while users are simply browsing the website, mine for Monero. In that way, website owners can supposedly still make profit and support their businesses, without bothering their visitors with advertisements.

#2.Does my mobile is affected ?

Technically any device that runs a browser with JavaScript are affected.Desktop, laptop and mobile phone could be potential targets.

#3.How to detect ?

Cryptojacking is difficult to detect but below signs could give you quick indication of something happening in the background

• Slow computer performance or quick battery drain in case of laptops
• Overheating systems

#4.How to prevent ?

• Install ad-blocking or anti-cryptomining extension on web browsers.
• Keep your browser extensions up to date since there could be some malicious browser extensions or poisoning legitimate extensions to execute crypto mining scripts.
• Disable/remove browser extensions which are not needed.
• Update your antivirus/anti-malware software

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