In plain English, cryptojacking is the stealing the resources of your computer (processing power and electrical power) to mine a cryptocurrency. Data is “mined” on a computer by using special programs to solve complex, encrypted math equations to gain a piece of the currency.
Cybercriminals are always looking for the fastest and easiest way to conduct fraud, and one was revealed in late 2017. There is a company called Coinhive, which launched a service that mines for a digital currency, known as Monero, directly within a web browser. Anyone using the computer is completely unaware that anything is amiss; unless they realize their browser is running very, very, slowly.
According to Symantec, “cryptojacking is a way for cybercriminals to make free money with minimal effort. Cybercriminals can simply hijack someone else’s machine with just a few lines of code. This leaves the
victim bearing the cost of the computations and electricity that are necessary to mine cryptocurrency. The criminals get away with the tokens.”
In early 2018, Malwarebytes published a report on the current state of cryptomining and cryptojacking. Shown below is a map, which depicts the world view and it appears that the United States is greatly affected by this scourge:
According to cyber-guy Brian Krebs, “Monero differs from Bitcoin in that its transactions are virtually untraceable, and there is no way for an outsider to track Monero transactions between two parties. Naturally, this quality makes Monero an especially appealing choice for cybercriminals.”
If you think that something is not quite right with your computer, please give me a call. I want to be sure your computer isn’t running software you didn’t know anything about (and generating profits for crooks).