Protect against bitcoin mining
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Using an individual's computing power without their permission and draining the productivity and life of their hardware is bad enough. Burrowing into the inner workings of a machine, crippling its functionality, and hiding any trace of the malware is even worse and more invasive. A specific example is Auto Refresh Plus, which disguises itself as a mandatory update to Mozilla Firefox. Once it's installed, it begins mining cryptocurrency in the background while bombarding you with unwanted ads.
There are a couple of names you should know about if you want to stay abreast of the cryptojacking phenomenon. Coinhive was a service that tried to mine cryptocurrency for good uses, but ended up being misused. RoughTed, a totally separate phenomenon, is the umbrella term for a cybercrime campaign involving many different illicit activities. The idea was great — a script on the website would tell your computer to mine for the cryptocurrency Monero. In turn, the website wouldn't need to host ads! It had many potential applications. As long as the page was open in a browser, the person's computer would continuously mine for Monero, generating donations.
Prevent cryptomining now
What went wrong? A few bad actors used the tech for their own personal gain. Coinhive became prevalent on hacked websites. While the original intent behind Coinhive was to use only a portion of a person's computing power, the result was that cryptojackers turned the knob to 11, slowing down the computer to the point of unusability. Increased CPU usage aside, much more alarming was the security breach itself. The amount of private information which could've been leaked is staggering. Ad-blockers and antivirus software had to keep up and block these scripts from running, and cryptojacking became a veritable security breach.
It didn't matter how it was being used; it was simply too easy for websites to mine without permission. On top of that, services which sought to mine cryptocurrency ethically still failed to ask for permission, discouraging many who might have otherwise advocated for it. That happened with the peer-to-peer, file-sharing site The Pirate Bay, which replaced banner ads with Coinhive without telling anyone. Not only that, but The Pirate Bay configured Coinhive incorrectly , causing users to experience a massive spike in CPU usage upon visiting the site.
The Pirate Bay received plenty of backlash.
Only smaller cryptocurrencies like Monero can rely on pedestrian hardware specs, meaning that they can be mined with cryptojacking malware. Security teams should of course, follow standard mitigation techniques — updating antivirus and firewall settings, ensuring all devices are updated with the latest patches, changing or strengthening default credentials, application whitelisting and so on. Legitimate sites like The New York Times are not entirely immune. Consumer Threat Notices Who loves tax season besides accountants? Using this method, hackers can significantly accelerate their efforts of cryptojacking to illicitly mine for currency. What is illicit cryptomining? Free install.
With the technology being misused in so many different ways, cryptomining as an alternative to ads was dead in the water. Coinhive closed up shop in RoughTed is an organized cybercrime campaign that has changed the whole game of cybersecurity.
Imagine malware that takes advantage of something we see every day on the internet: ads. If hackers could take advantage of third-party ad networks distributing ads throughout the internet, half of the work would be done for them. They'd have a vast, multi-pronged attack that was so spread out that it would not only hit a huge number of people, but it would also escape easy detection. On websites all across the internet, ads are telling computers to mine for cryptocurrency. Write code that looks innocent. Programming languages are just that — languages.
Malvertising campaigns are able to slip past certain filters by rewriting code. Use shady networks. There are networks that display ads for The New York Times , and those that display ads for gambling sites or pornography sites. Which sites do you think care more about how their ad space affects their users? The NYT cannot risk their reputation, but as long as a gambling site can get an extra dime, who cares what kind of ad it shows?
Make the ads look legit. You might think there is a correlation between an ad's appearance and what it's doing behind the scenes. There is none. The ad could be for anything at all, look crisp and elegant, and still contain malicious code. Hijack an existing ad network. Legitimate sites like The New York Times are not entirely immune.
What Is Cryptojacking? Prevention and Detection Tips
In fact, the NYT started unwittingly displaying malicious ads in , all coming from a compromised ad network. RoughTed still has not been stopped, even as it makes Amazon's Content Distribution Network do their work for them. Redirecting is how someone comes into contact with the malware in the first place.
The ad runs a script that sends the user to a malicious server — but only if they are using outdated software. For many users, the malicious ad will do nothing harmful. That makes it harder to detect. Keep redirecting. For the victims as well as the hosts, an endless amount of redirects or a set of legitimate-looking ones will help hide any shady activity. One of the first websites to try this approach, for example, was Quartz. The idea of spreading cryptomining efforts across multiple user computers in exchange for access to the website seemed reasonable, especially since the user would be informed and asked to agree to the deal.
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- Cryptojacking and the Bitcoin Miner Virus Threat | AVG?
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- What is cryptojacking? How to prevent, detect, and recover from it | CSO Online;
- How to protect yourself from cryptomining | TechRadar.
Unfortunately this approach has been abused by criminals. Rather than invest in the infrastructure needed for legitimate cryptomining, they look at browser mining scripts as a way to avoid those costs. Given the drain on your CPU, if your computer suddenly is running slowly or your battery is draining particularly fast, you might have been hacked. How can you tell? Unfortunately, this doesn't tell you what site ran the browser mining script.
Unfortunately, hackers are making it harder to spot their efforts. While older scripts maximized CPU use, new cryptomining scripts throttle back to as little as 20 percent, making them more difficult to detect. While manually identifying attacks is much harder now, there are preventative steps you can take that will automatically reduce your exposure and vulnerability to browser-based attacks.
Most popular web browsers now include extensions that can help stop web-based cryptomining attacks. These can include both solutions developed by the browser developer, or open-source extensions that can be added on. The No Coin and MinerBlocker solutions, for example, monitor for suspicious activity and block attacks, and both have extensions available for Chrome, Opera, and Firefox. Given the explosion of cryptomining malware, many ad-blockers now include a Coinhive blocker that filters the script from running on your browser.
Cryptojackers are a clever lot, and they've devised a number of schemes to get other peoples' computers to mine cryptocurrency. Most are not new; cryptomining. Defending against this threat · Regularly update devices' software and firmware as vendors release patches. · Be wary of unknown URLs.
If you want to completely block certain attacks, most browsers will allow you to disable JavaScript — although many legitimate websites still use JavaScript, so disabling it may cause problems. You can also block specific domains that you suspect of cryptomining. Because cryptojacking requires increasing processing power to mine cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, miners are discovering new ways to wield that processing power. One such way is to borrow it from thousands of unwitting internet users.
In fact, personal devices were doing more cryptocurrency mining than anything else that year. One result was the development of Bitcoin mining malware. Hackers developed ways to hijack processing power from machines used by people like you — which, when multiplied by the thousands, dramatically increases the chances of successful mining.
The individual who infects your computer with cryptocurrency mining malware is doing so only to make a buck. Strictly speaking, cryptojacking is not about accessing or sharing your private information. But, cryptojackers are using your system resources without your knowledge or consent. A Bitcoin miner virus can be so aggressive that it drains your battery in no time, renders your computer unusable for long periods, and shortens the life of your device.