As of October 2017 more than 2500 websites are secretly mining cryptocurrencies. When you visit, the site runs a program to mine cryptocoins on your computer . That list of websites includes YouTube, which was serving ads that secretly mined the Monero cryptocurrency in January 2018.
Why?
It’s profitable!
Mining cryptocurrencies is power intensive but when they’re not paying for the electricity, it’s very profitable. Why spend the money buying your own hardware and paying for power when it’s possible to mine cryptocurrency using your PC instead, simply by going to a website hosting one of their ads. Except suddenly your PC is a bit busier and slower than normal.
Some website owners are doing this to supplement their advertising income. However, other times it can be because the website has been hacked or via a malicious advertisement.
How Can You Stop It?
Your best protection is to not leave web pages open after you’re done with them. If you close the webpage, this will stop the mining. All the major website browsers are already working on patches to protect against this new threat. Our clients will get these new software versions as soon as they’re available via our usual maintenance service.
If this article helped you, please share it on Facebook because it may also help your friends. And if you’d like to read more, here’s some more articles on the subject with details on some of these attacks:
North Korea – has definitely been trading in crypto coins and was accused of stealing $500 million in coins in February.
Apps also – two Android apps with as many as 50,000 downloads from Google Play were found to be using cryto miners.
