How to check if someone is secretly using your computer to dig out cryptocurrencies? | Blog | Lucky Web Solutions

Your computer might secretly dig different cryptocurrencies out, using the power of the processor, to generate new and potentially lucrative “coins”. If this “digging” occurred, someone else would have a profit instead of you. Malware incidents that include tools for digging cryptocurrencies have increased 6 times during the previous year. Or at least that’s what IBM security service says. Anyway, here are some pieces of advice how to find out if you had unconsciously accepted to have the power of your computer used for digging cryptocurrencies.

Check the capacity of your processor

You can easily check if the CPU usage is unusually big – just open the Task Manager.

If you notice extremely high chart peaks during certain website visits, which normally shouldn’t be so demanding for the processor; if all your apps are closed but the chart keeps showing that the processor usage is still extremely high - then you might be having some malware issues.

It is hard to say how a normal CPU consumption should look like. Bear in mind that people keep different apps on their computers and that’s why the computer power varies. However, a sudden increase in CPU power shows that something is out of order.

AD-blocker might help

Your computer might be forced to dig if you have visited a certain web location or clicked an ad that contained a virus.

If this is the case, once you leave the webpage or close the tab, digging automatically stops. You can block Javascript and launch it on the website that is infected. You can do this by simply using the privacy content control based on your search engine.

Softwares for ad blocking can also filter certain kinds of digs in web searchers. Coin Hive is a miner but doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a malware. A miner can become a part of the page without user’s knowledge although its programmers actually encourage webpage owners to tell their clients about the miner’s presence.

AdGuard is a software for ad blocking. It scans the location to see whether the Coin Hive is present and sends a warning. AdBlock plus suggests adding filters to its block options to target Coin Hive.

…but not with this malware type

IBM researchers have found advanced, secret software for cryptocurrency digging, which penetrates the computer system. They travel through infected files using pictures or by simply clicking the links leading to malevolent sites. That kind of attacks have the tendency to target big business grids and in those cases, it is advisable to contact an IT company or an expert for help.

Dave McMillen, a cryptocurrency researcher from IBM Managed Security Services, says: “should your system get infected with this kind of virus, a certain degradation in process functions will probably appear. Just turn on Task manager to check CPU usage”, he adds, “ and task Manager will identify the process and call it off.”

Is this used for bitcoin digging?

No, because bitcoin would demand too much computer power to be able to dig profitably, even if it used a million computers. Bitcoin diggers manage vast depots that have hundreds of machines specifically shaped for bitcoin dig.

These miners usually try to generate Monero cryptocurrency instead. As well as other cryptocurrencies, the value of Monero went up from around 15 dollars per currency unit in January, to 140 dollars at the beginning of September 2017.

Some cryptocurrencies are legit

Some web pages have experimented with mining. They did it to earn money from digging instead of advertising.  For example, Pirate Bay did this and experimented with Coin Hive. “We really want to get rid of all ads”, the page administrators said. “But we also need enough money to keep the page updated”.