Cryptojacking is a silent yet ruthless act of exploitation that affects the performance of your PCs, laptops, and smartphones, shortening hardware longevity and opening pathways to further attacks.
This article explores what cryptojacking is, how it affects your system, and how you can protect yourself from this hard-to-identify infection.
What is Cryptojacking? How Does it Work?
Cryptojacking is the parasitic process of mining cryptocurrencies using a device’s computing power without permission. Unlike other cyber crimes that loot money and data, cryptojackers solely access computing power without the victim’s knowledge, making it harder to identify and resolve. It can affect desktop devices, laptops, web servers, and smartphones.
Types of Cryptojacking
Cybercriminals use malicious and deceptive software or websites to gain access to devices by finding vulnerabilities in the security. It usually works through deceptive website content that tricks the victim into installing mining software, and via spam links that infect the web browser.
Cryptojacking Through Software Installation
Using malicious links, clone websites that mimic real ones, and through spam advertising, cryptojackers install mining software that runs in the background without any signs of detection. These malware use the parallel processing capabilities of GPUs, and can work through unauthorised copies of popular software.
Cryptojacking Through a Web Browser
Using JavaScript codes and pop-ups embedded in a website, the malware will infect the web browser and use CPU resources for mining as long as the browser is open, even in the background. These are usually infected via illegal websites that sell pirated content.
How to Identify and Avoid Cryptojacking?
While it is unable to identify cryptojacking malware directly, various warning signs can help one detect the infection, including poor performance of the system due to overutilization of the central processing unit. It can result in overheating of the device and an increase in the electricity bill. Users can prevent this crime to an extent by the following precautions.
- Install Antivirus Software: Purchase and install a trustworthy antivirus software capable of detecting mining malware.
- Install Ad Blockers: Install ad-blocking software or browser extensions that block all kinds of advertisements, including the deceptive mining ads.
- Disable JavaScript: While disabling JavaScript prevents the installation of cryptojacking scripts, it may hinder other functions of the browser.
- Monitor CPU Usage: You can access the CPU usage data to identify which applications are consuming more power than usual.
- Stay Updated: Beyond keeping the device and software up to date, stay updated with the latest news to recognize potential scams.
Notable Cryptojacking Cases
In the previous years, cryptojackers have successfully exploited famous websites, tech companies, and other institutions, especially in the early days of Bitcoin mining. The affected entities include Yahoo, YouTube, Tesla, Harvard University, and even the Government of Chihuahua.
Using a JavaScript vulnerability, cryptojackers hosted an ad containing Bitcoin mining malware on Yahoo Europe’s website. Ran between December 2013 and January 2014, it affected more than two million computers, and was immediately resolved after the late detection. A similar ad was identified and removed by YouTube from its platform in 2018.
In 2018, cryptohackers hacked Tesla’s Amazon Web Services environment and injected the jacking scripts. After RedLock, a cloud security company, alerted Tesla to the issue, Tesla devs resolved it within hours. The number of systems infected and the value of cryptocurrencies mined are unknown.
Harvard University also reported several cases of employees and students mining Bitcoin and Dogecoin using research computers, and those issues were resolved within the internal committee. A major hack happened when 300 websites were infected with cryptojacking, including the official website of the Government of Chihuahua.
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The Bottom Line
With the emergence of technology, there is a high possibility of using sophisticated AI-based malware to commit cryptojacking, and it is up to the users to identify and avoid such happenings. As a final note, always try to do research, ask experts, and take the precautions listed above to ensure that nobody is stealing your computational power.