Cryptojacking: How Your Computer Processing Power Can Be Stolen To Mine Cryptocurrencies For Criminals?
Cryptojacking involves the unauthorised use of the computing power of digital devices, cyber criminals infect people’s devices with malware that steals and reallocates a portion of the computing power to cryptocurrency mining, for the benefit of the cyber-criminal. This often results in infected computers running slower than they previously would have as part of their computing power is no longer available to the user of that device.
What Is Cryptocurrency Mining?
Cryptocurrency mining involves large networks of computers that operate in a variety of locations around the world that verify and secure blockchains. Blockchains act as public records of cryptocurrency transactions that are stored on a decreased public ledger. Large amounts of computing power are required to facilitate the process of cryptocurrency mining; the more computing power cryptocurrency miners have the faster they will be able to mine, which means the more value they will be able to generate.
How Does Cryptojacking Affect Victims?
Computer Slowdown
Whilst infected with crypto-jacking malware people’s digital devices will start to run slower. It may be that their device takes longer to turn on, load web pages or transfer files. If you have noticed your computer slowing down you should ensure that you perform an antivirus scan and ensure that your computer storage is not too full, as a full hard drive can also slow down your computer.
Reduction In Productivity
If your computer starts being noticeably slower than what it used to be there is a good chance that you will be less productive when using it as you will have to wait longer for your computer to perform tasks. This can negatively affect individuals and businesses who have targets to meet.
Potential Damage To The Computer
Cryptojacking can cause infected devices to overheat as they may be using more processing power than their manufacturer intended them to use, this may cause damage and potential fire risks for victims’ homes and businesses.
Increased Use Of Energy
Another negative knock-on effect for the victim is the fact that cryptocurrency mining requires a lot of electrical energy, if unsuspecting victims’ digital devices are infected with crypto-jacking malware they may see their energy bills rise significantly in some cases; they are also likely not to understand why this is the case.
How Are Infected Devices Infected With Cryptoacking Malware?
Phishing Schemes
Phishing is where cyber criminals send emails to unsuspecting victims, within the email the cyber criminal often pretends to be a person of authority such as from the government or a utility service provider. They may make a claim such as the recipient of the email has paid too little or too much on their previous bill and click the link. If the victim is tricked into clicking the malicious link malware will be downloaded onto their computer, there are many different types of malware and cryptojacking malware is just one of them.
Read: How To Prevent Your Smart Car From Being Hacked
Using Public Wifi
Public wifi is the free wifi you find in train stations and cafes that anybody can log into, cybercriminals know that when your devices connect to these networks they will be vulnerable to cyber intrusions. It is best to avoid connecting to public wifi. Instead, you should make use of your 4g or 5g mobile data when out and about as this is the most secure way to connect to the internet outside the comforts of your own home. However, if you must connect to public wifi it is worth ensuring that you have a virtual private network (VPN) that masks your device’s IP address, meaning that hackers will have a much tougher job of even detecting your device in the first place.
Charging Your Phone With USB Sockets In The Wall Of Public Places And On Public Transport
When you connect your phone to a USB socket in a wall of a public place you could be transferring more than energy towards your device. Hackers can infect these outlets with malware that will be transferred onto connected devices. To avoid this you should search for plug outlets where you insert a plug into the wall and then insert your wire into your plug, as the plug prevents data from being transferred.
Text/Banner Advertisements
Malware can be inserted into text or banner advertisements that display even on legitimate, virus-free websites. Once clicked the victim will be directed to a website that will download malware onto the victim’s device. To avoid being a victim instead of clicking website advertisements you could instead type the company name into Google to help ensure that you are going to land on a legitimate website and not a cloned website designed to look like the real thing.
Conclusion
If you notice that your computer has suddenly slowed down you should conduct an antivirus scan to help root out crypto-jacking malware that your computer has been infected with as a result of an internet scam.
