How to protect yourself from cryptojacking?

Together with the development of the cryptosphere, the emergence of new altcoins and the improvement of methods for mining digital assets, the so-called illegal mining has appeared, which is also called cryptojacking. We are going to tell you what you need to know about this phenomenon.

Malicious mining, illegal mining, cryptojacking - any of these terms can be used to designate a recently emerged online threat that poses a danger to electronic devices of ordinary users. This is an introduction into other people's devices: laptops, computers, mobile phones in order to use their computing power for hidden cryptocurrency mining.

This phenomenon has become relevant for miners who are not burdened by moral principles and who do not want to spend significant amounts to mine cryptocurrencies. Using other people's power, "illegal miners" make a profit, and also significantly save their financial resources, while unsuspecting ordinary users face problems such as reduced performance of their devices, increased electricity bills, and sometimes a significant reduction in the time operation of gadgets.

How cryptojacking works
In order for an attacker to start using a PC for shadow mining, the device must first be hacked and a special program for cryptojacking installed on it. To do this, cybercriminals usually use the following methods:

• Hacking IT infrastructure.
  At the same time, the program for illegal mining Cryptomining script is loaded and runs the executable file in the IT infrastructure.
• Downloading malware.
  The malicious script can be embedded in ads, outdated WordPress plugins. When a user opens an Internet resource with an "appropriate surprise", the code for illegal mining is automatically downloaded to the user's PC.
• Operate through access to cloud services.
  In this case, hackers are looking for access to user clouds through API keys.

Cryptojacking can affect not only laptops and desktop computers, but also smartphones. And, despite the low power of a single mobile device, the latter are of interest to fraudsters, since the computing power of several devices can be used simultaneously.

The spread of cryptojacking
For the first time, such illegal activity was discussed in 2017. At this time, the Coinhive organization published scripts for cryptojacking. Site owners used this code as an alternative to show ads on their site. Working with this code made it possible for cybercriminals to use the computer resources of site visitors, which reduced their costs of mining cryptocurrency and significantly increased profits. Despite the fact that the published code was closed in 2019, illegal miners have assessed the development prospects and continue to improve the relevant trends, which gives reason to talk about the scale of the problem.

The danger of cryptojacking
Despite the fact that the purpose of cryptojackers is to make money on cryptocurrency, a user who is not close to the concept of electronic money can also suffer from their activity.

Since cryptojackers need free enormous computing power, most often they can even attack not a home PC, but a company network.

According to statistics, the issue of the danger of cryptojacking is especially relevant for small and medium-sized businesses. Large companies can also be subject to similar attacks, but to a much lesser extent, usually due to increased vigilance in relation to the security of office PCs.

The consequences of the actions of crypto crooks, against whomever they are directed, are manifested in a decrease in the speed of the PC and a decrease in performance, an increase in electricity bills, as well as in the early wear of equipment.

How to protect yourself from cryptojacking
Meanwhile, to protect yourself from cryptojacking, you need to follow a few simple recommendations:

• Use a robust cybersecurity program. If you install a truly effective option, you can protect your PC from most malware, including cryptojacking.
• Use browser extensions designed to block malicious activity. Popular browsers also install specialized programs that block cryptojacking activity.
• Use ad blockers. This method also allows you to detect and block cryptojacking code.
• Block pages that use cryptojacking scripts. In other words, before visiting each Internet resource, you need to check whether it is on the list of safe or allowed sites.
• Follow the trends in the sphere of shadow mining. Cybercriminals are constantly working on new ways to inject code for illegal cryptocurrency mining using other people's devices. In this regard, you can also detect cryptojacking on the network if you constantly monitor possible cybersecurity threats.

We would like to note as a separate item the advice on ensuring the cybersecurity of mobile gadgets: it is recommended to download new applications to phones exclusively from the Play Market if the smartphone uses the Android system or the App Store on the iPhone.

Conclusion:
While cryptojacking may look like a relatively harmless scam, this illegal activity of stealing computing power from other people's gadgets reduces both the performance of devices and their overall lifespan. Therefore, it is always advisable to take care of a reliable method of protecting the cybersecurity of gadgets.