What Does Cryptocurrency Mining Malware Mean for The Industry

Lately, there have been many interesting developments with malware and browser extensions.

Many people notice that even though they have only a few programs running on their computer, they seem to have all of their processing power being used... Coincidence?

I think not.

How Bitcoin Malware Is Ramping Up

With the onset of the internet, it only took time before people started to infect computers with malware which either took over the network, stole passwords, or just completely fried the computer itself.

Now we another evolution in malware... Bitcoin Mining

While it might seem like something unrelated, the malware allows people to use other computers to create and verify this digital currency.
Although it uses more power, electricity and the user does not profit from their computers work.

And according to Check Point Software, the Coinhive variant of malware that uses a javascript embedding to use the processing power of visitors browsers to mine Monero has become the sixth most popular malware of October.

These recent developments come after news on Coinhive being used by The Pirate Bay mining Monero on participants computers without them knowing (which they later said was just a test to see if it could combat the use of ads on the Pirate Bay.)

It happens under the radar, and more frequently than you would think yet the easiest way to prevent it on your computer is too...

Make sure you go to safe sites and don't click phishing links.

This isn't something that you would often notice unless your fan ramps up and your computer starts to overperform, but it is something that can be preventable just by making sure you're on the right sites and not downloading a bunch of nonsense.

While this can seem scary, the truth is that if malware is mining bitcoin, Monero, and other cryptocurrencies then mass adoption is coming quick, and with that a lot of profit to be had.

The time to start investing and buying cryptocurrency is now,

Austin