Sneaky Cryptocurrency Mining

[Ian]

TechPowerUp have an article which explains a little bit about how malicious websites are embedding code, which means that your PC processing power is unknowingly used to mine for cryptocurrency:

Well, after users think they've closed their browsers, more specifically. Researchers form anti-malware provider Malwarebytes have discovered a new form of web-based cryptocurrency mining that has a stealth-like approach to running mining code, which might cause less attentive users' machines to keep mining even after their web browsers have been closed. This is done via an utterly simple method, really: upon opening a malicious web page that has been coded to make users' machines mine cryptocurrency, the web page opens a pop-up window that is minimized behind the Windows Taskbar's clock. It's ingeniously simple - but could be surprisingly hard to detect, and could mean that the mining process will actually keep on using CPU cycles and mining crypto indefinitely until the next system reboot.

Read more here:
https://www.techpowerup.com/239283/...olves-now-keeps-running-after-closing-browser

 

[V_R]

I've seen this on certain P2P sites before, they were using it as an alternative to ad revenue apparently. But not with this sneaky hidden windows stuff.

 

[Ian]

Yep, very sneaky - I didn't even realise this was possible until a few weeks ago. I imagine we'll be seeing a lot more over this for the next few months .