With all the attention (positive and negative) that the crypto space has been getting lately, there are substantial attempts from unethical hackers to take over your devices and use them for their own benefits.
The following article will briefly introduce cryptojacking and how it works alongside some countermeasures to protect yourself from it.
Feel free to follow and share your ideas in the comments section.
One way to bring new cryptocurrencies into online existence is by mining them.
Mining, of course, is not a simple process and takes great computing power to be profitable mining. Hackers have found a way to mine cryptocurrencies for free not using their devices but other people's devices without their knowledge nor permission. Hackers who conduct cryptojacking attacks are not interested in your private affairs, they are simply using your device to make a profit which makes your device extremely slow and unable to process your tasks.
What is fascinating to know is that cryptohackers can compete with highly sophisticated mining firms without being bound to any legal threats or electric bills, all they have is a network of thousands of infected devices in which their mining malware are connected, and whenever those devices are connected to the internet they are mining.
The scary part about cryptojacking is that it’s hard for the victim to detect the attack. They are usually subtle but exhaust your processors and shorten the lifespan of your device. So, if you are noticing a surprising change in your device performance, you might be under a cryptojacking attack.
Cryptojacking can be either executed locally from malware that you have unintentionally installed, or by visiting a web page that executes a crypto mining script.
Android devices are much more exposed to these attacks.
How To Detect Cryptojacking?
Stay vigilant when it comes to the performance of your device.
Check the heat of your device when doing normal tasks that don’t require much computing power.
Check the CPU usage from time to time.
Listen to the cooling fans.
Always scan for malware and which suspicious software is using high CPU power.
Follow the news as it will help stay updated with the latest hack attacks in the crypto space.
Ways To Prevent Cryptojacking
Be aware of cryptojacking and the ways in which it affects your device.
Educate yourself about cybersecurity and the common ways hackers attack you.
Install Anti-crypto mining extensions.
Use an ad-blocker to remove any ads which could have any type of script embedded in them.
Turn off javascript when browsing online because it is the medium used to execute mining browser mining scripts.