Your computer could secretly dig up various cryptocurrencies, using the power of your processor to generate new and potentially lucrative "coins", from which you would not profit but someone else. Malware incidents involving cryptocurrency mining tools have increased sixfold last year, according to IBM's security service. Here's how to find out if you unknowingly agreed to use the power of your computer to mine cryptocurrencies.
Check your CPU load
In Task Manager, you can check if CPU usage is unusually high.
If you notice high spikes on the CPU chart when visiting a particular site that shouldn't be as demanding on the processor, or if all your applications are closed, but the chart shows that CPU usage is still very high, then you may have a malware problem for digging cryptocurrencies.
It's hard to say what "normal" CPU consumption looks like, given that the power of computers and applications that people run can vary a lot, but a sudden increase in CPU usage indicates an abnormal increase in CPU power demand.
An ad-blocker can help
Your computer may be forced to mine by visiting a specific site or displaying an infected ad.
If this is the case, once you leave that website or close the tab, digging stops. To keep you safe, you can also block Javascript from running on a site that is known to be infected, simply by using the default privacy and content controls in your web browser.
Ad blocking software can also filter out known types of mining in the search engines themselves. One such mining script is called Coin Hive, which is not meant to be malware. The script can be embedded on websites without the knowledge of visitors, although its developers encourage website owners to discover the presence of such a script to their users.
One ad blocking software, AdGuard, will scan the site to see if Coin Hive is on it and alert you. AdBlock Plus, suggests adding filters to its built-in blocking options that target Coin Hive.
Researchers at IBM have found more advanced, covert software for digging cryptocurrencies, which are penetrating the computer system. They are delivered via infected image files or by clicking on links that lead to a malicious site. Such attacks tend to target large business networks, and in that case it is necessary to contact a professional, or IT company, for help.
If your system is infected with this software, degradation in CPU performance should occur. In this case, turn on the Task manager to check the CPU usage. In Task Manager, you can identify the process that eats all computer cycles and abort it.
Bitcoin requires too much computing power to mine profitably this way, even if it uses millions of ordinary computers. Bitcoin miners today operate huge centers that contain thousands of machines specifically configured to dig for bitcoin.
Instead, these miners usually try to generate Monero cryptocurrency. Like other cryptocurrencies, last year the value of Monera rose from about $ 15 in January to $ 140 in early September, per unit of currency.
Probably everyone has heard the news that hackers managed to use malicious code to hack supercomputer and run it for bitcoin mining. This caused the system of this large computer machine, which solved the most complex mathematical processes in just a few seconds, to crash, which would take 20 years for the best PC on the market with an excellent configuration. In order to stop that process, the system was recovered and work on even bigger security barriers.
Articles should be written so that people can benefit and avoid harm. People make good money through mining. And give people better and new information, That's the decent thing to do.