what is cryptojacking attack?
Most high-profile crypto-jacking cases:
In 2019, Microsoft had to remove from its store eight apps that secretly generated cryptocurrencies, abusing the resources of those who had downloaded them. All eight apps are believed to be linked to the same person or organization, although they claimed to have three different authors. Victims found these apps by searching for certain keywords in the store or finding them in a ranking of free apps. In any case, when someone downloaded and ran one of them, they also inadvertently downloaded a crypto-jacking program written in JavaScript. Once active, the program would start looking for Monero coins. The activity consumed a large part of the device’s resources and affected its performance.
In 2018, a hidden crypto-mining script was discovered on The Homicide Report, a site belonging to the Los Angeles Times newspaper. When someone accessed the site, their device would start generating Monero cryptocurrencies with crypto prices. The problem did not come to light right away because the script used so few resources that visitors B2Broker were unaware of the infection.
First crypto-jacking
In 2018, a group of crypto hackers attacked the operating technologies network of a European water supply company. The incident affected the company’s control system and seriously impacted its ability to operate the plant. It was the first crypto-jacking attack against an industrial control system on record. As in the attack on the
In Brazil, between July and August 2018, a crypto-jacking attack was recorded in which some 200,000 MikroTik-brand routers were infected. The infection caused the devices to inject the Coinhive code into a huge amount of web traffic.
How crypto-jacking is detected
Detecting a crypto-jacking attack is not always easy: mining software is often well hidden and its operations are easily mistaken for benign ones. There are, however, three characteristic signs that something is wrong.
Cryptojacking detection: three signs
Performance issues
One of the main symptoms of crypto-jacking is drop-in device performance. If your device runs slower than usual or you notice that it stops responding, don’t take it as a minor problem with crypto prices. Another indication that something is wrong is that your battery lasts less than normal.
Overheating
Like any intensive process, crypto mining can cause the device to overheat. Extreme temperatures can cause equipment damage or shorten its useful life. If you notice that your computer’s fan is spinning at full speed, the temperature may have increased due to a website or crypto mining script and the computer is doing what it can to prevent a fire.
3. Higher processor usage
If you enter a website that has little media content and notices that your processor usage is increasing, a crypto-jacking script could be responsible. A good way to detect these scripts is to monitor processor (also called CPU) usage through Activity Monitor or Task Manager. However, keep in mind that malicious processes can hide or masquerade as benign ones so you don’t stop them. Also, if the device is running at full capacity, it will respond slowly, and doing these investigations will not be easy for you.
How to protect yourself from crypto-jacking
Use a reliable security solution
The most comprehensive cybersecurity applications, such as Kaspersky Total Security. Offer protection against malicious crypto miners and can detect threats anywhere with crypto prices. Although this is valid for any type of malware. It is also important that you install all the patches and updates that are available for your operating system and for the applications that you use (especially for your browser).
Be aware of the “fads” in the world of crypto attacks
Criminals live by modifying their scripts and inventing new ways to get them into their victims’ devices. If you stay proactive and take an interest in changes in the world of cyber threats, you will have a better chance of noticing if a crypto-jacking script (or some other kind of malware) has found its way onto your device or into your network.
Use extensions that block crypto jacking in the browser
Extensions like miner block, No Coin, and Anti Miner will help you block these scripts on the sites you visit. These helpers are available for all popular browsers.
Use an ad blocker
Installing an ad blocker is a good way to stop crypto-jacking scripts as they are often delivered via online advertisements. Adblock Plus and other similar programs are capable of detecting and blocking malicious crypto miners.
Disable JavaScript
Disabling JavaScript in the browser is a good measure to avoid crypto-jacking infections. However, while the solution is effective against hidden crypto miners with crypto prices. It will prevent you from using some features that you might need.
If you know a page contains crypto-jacking scripts, block it
To protect yourself from these attacks when you browse the Web. Make sure every site you visit is on a carefully crafted whitelist. Alternatively, you can use a blacklist of sites reported to contain crypto-jacking scripts.
