What is Cryptojacking Malware & How to Protect your PC from Cryptojacking?

Hackers are kept on coming up with new tricks and tactics to siphon lots of currency from authorized sites. Be aware user’s because a new security threat is the town i.e. Cryptojacking. As fraudsters have become obsessed with different cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin so, cryptocurrency explosion is moving wicked individuals to quality mining systems anyhow possible. However, the latest technique is hijacking the victim’s system resources. Read this blog to get tips to protect from cryptojacking

What is Cryptojacking Malware ?

Cryptojacking is another new way of the hackers for unauthorized use of somebody else’s computer data and mine cryptocurrency. They generally do this by making the victim click on a malicious link sent to them by email that will simply download the crypto mining code on the victim’s computer. Or they can infect a website or online ads also with the JavaScript code, which executes automatically as soon it is loaded into the victim’s browser. So, cryptojacking is basically a secret that can use the victim’s computing devices in order to mine cryptocurrency. When hackers use the victim’s browser to mine cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, they are basically doing cryptojacking. Now, cryptocurrencies work on a distributed account book for which organizations are used to verify and add to the account book. It is because of there is large number of the ledger, there will be more currency. Therefore, it is really important to have computing access in order to make lots of money via cryptocurrencies.

How Exactly Cryptojacking Works ?

After Understanding what is Cryptojacking, let’s understand how does it actually work. Cryptojacking is a new security that hijacks the system resources to mine the cryptocurrencies. Now, the question is how it works exactly and enter the victim’s computer device. Fraudsters basically have two unique ways to secretly enter the computer of victims and mine the cryptocurrency. Both of the ways are discussed below:

• The first technique used by the hackers is loaded the cryptomining code in the victim’s computers. It can be done with help of phishing techniques like victims will receive a trustful-looking email, which simply makes users click on a link. As a victim clicks on the link, the code runs and load cryptomining script on the computer device. After that, this script will keep on running in the background as the victim works.
• Another possible way is to inject a javascript on the website or ads, which are basically delivered to a number of websites. As a victim visit that infected website or ad pop-up from their browsers, the script is executed automatically. In this, no code is stored on the victim’s computer device.

Does not matter, which method is used because the main aim is to execute the code that runs complex mathematical problems on the device of the victim. After that, it sends the results to the server, which is controlled by the hacker. However, the motive of hackers is to maximize the return so, they will use both the methods.

Cryptojacking scripts do not damage the computer victim like all another type of malware. They just steal the resources of CPU processing. Companies with lots of cryptojacked systems can get real costs as a help desk.

How to Protect Your PC from Cryptojacking : Protection & Prevention Techniques?

Cryptojacking has become a new security threat for the PC users across the world. However, there are many ways available that can avoid cryptojacking scripts in the webpages and malware & enable cryptojacking protection methods.

1. Browser Miners

Sometimes, a user visits the webpage and at the same time, he or she noticed that the device is running slowly. At that time, one needs to open the task manager and check that whether the browser is using a large amount of CPU processing power or not. These invisible scripts on the device use the resources to mine cryptocurrency, and its after-effects very easy to spot.

Now, to implement cryptojacking protection to the browser from these scripts, one is suggested to install browser extensions. This will easily detect and block the cryptojacking scripts on the websites. The type of extension simply depends on the browser a user is using and always keep in mind that browser extensions have their own risks that can block any other elements from particular websites. The two most famous anti-cryptojacking extensions that are available on Chrome and Firefox, are:

• NoCoin – Chrome/Firefox
• MinerBlock – Chrome/Firefox

These two are designed to identify and block crypto mining scripts. In addition, also note that some browsers such as Opera have their built-in cryptojacking protection programs.

2. Malicious Programs

Installing a malicious cryptojacking application is more complex to be difficult to fulfil than any browser-based script scam. It is one of the problems for a longer time. However, if a user has a reliable anti-malware application installed, then he or she is protected from the common cryptojacking malware to some extent. Installing software like Malwarebytes will help users in stay protected from cryptojacking malware when they download files from unverified sources. However, Malwarebytes started blocking browser-based cryptocurrency miners and allow users to install it to catch all solution.

Mining of cryptocurrencies is becoming so common that fraudster keeps on using new ways to do it. Cryptojacking is one such new threat that helps hackers in mining cryptocurrencies. It basically hijacks the system resource of the victim. They load the crypto code in the victim and executes in the background. Uses CPU processing resources for the cryptocurrencies. Therefore, people need to be aware of what is cryptojacking and how to protect PC from cryptojacking & therby enabling cryptojacking prevention.