What are they using, in secret, your PC to miner cryptocurrencies?
It is amazing to realize that Bitcoin, the first criptocurrencies, came on the scene nearly a decade ago. But when it really became popular it was last year. Starting in January of 2018, there are more than a thousand varieties of the criptocurrencies in circulation: Bitcoin, Monero, Ethereum, Ripple, Litecoin, IOTA and many more.
But to participate or not in the purchase and sale of criptocurrencies, or if you don't know anything about it, you could be a victim of the cryptojacking. Often, people don't even notice that their machine has been hijacked. This is what you need to know to defend yourself.
Is the era of the criptocurrencies
The criptocurrencies is digital money used to make payments online, secure and anonymous without involving a bank. All purchases and transfers are encoded, stored and recorded in a ledger known as the chain of blocks (blockchain), a kind of book of the living history of criptocurrencies, where all data is encrypted securely with code is not decipherable.
Each transaction for each bit of criptocurrencies is logged in the blockchain. This requires a huge amount of processing power of the PC, and there is where the cryptominers .
The criptominer is legal
It is true. The criptominer is a new legitimate business where companies and individuals spend a considerable amount of CPU power to minar criptocurrencies, an intensive process of computing and solving mathematical problems tricky to get a Proof-of-Work or PoW, which verifies the next block in the chain. The criptominer has two purposes: to update the ledger and free up more criptocurrencies in the system.
It also pays very well. The reward current for removing a block that is 12.5 BTC (Bitcoins), which today is worth a little less than $ 140,000. That is why we all are getting in on the act. The criptocurrencies have become a lot of money.
The cryptojacking is on the rise
The criminals wanted to get into the game. Even thought in the problem of the huge computer resources needed: why invest in expensive equipment when you can get PCs for other people to do the work for you?
The cyptojacking in the browser is a clever trick very popular as it uses JavaScript to implement mining on any machine that you visit an infected website. The extraction usually stops after you get out of that web site, but there were several attempts that tried to create a new hidden window of the web browser that continues extracting even if you stop visiting that web page. The miner hijacks your CPU (usually without your knowledge or consent) and uses his power to get the next PoW. This not only takes advantage of your PC, also your electricity bill.Worse still, if you're forced to use all your power for too long, your PC might overheat and you might notice that some programs work poorly. In the case of mobile devices, this can even lead to the destruction of the device to overheat the battery, or to reduce, in large measure, the useful life of the device.
Protect yourself against the criptomer
Look complicated mining by means of malware is that it happens in the background, and the common user is not aware that it is happening. There are No obvious signs, unless your PC to overheat or slow down substantially to perform processing tasks very simple.
Therefore, although the criptominer is legal, if you want to prevent others from locking up your PC or if you want to avoid the criptominer full, you have a couple of options:
1. An option to protect you from the traps of criptominer / cryptojacking while surfing the web is to use an extension that blocks automatically the miners of JavaScript most common.
2. Use a powerful antivirus like Avast to protect against the criptojacking to detect all web sites not safe and block anything malicious, including the criptominer.
3. Always make sure that your Windows software is up to date to avoid vulnerabilities like EternalBlue that can be used to propagate attacks criptominer.
Defends your digital life, and frequents this blog to get updated news on the latest trends and threats.
SOURCE > Protégete del cryptojacking
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