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Why in the News?
According to a report by SonicWall, ‘Cryptojacking’ attacks on computer systems have gone up by 30% to 66.7 million in the first half of 2022.Key Points:
About
Cryptojacking
- Cryptojacking is a cybercrime where a criminal secretly uses a victim’s computing power to generate cryptocurrency.
- It is hard to detect and the victims of these attacks mostly remain unaware that their systems have been compromised.
How it works?
- The malicious programme is installed when the user clicks on an unsafe link, or visits an infected website — and unknowingly provides access to their Internet-connected device.
- Programmes which are called as ‘coin miners’ are then used by the criminal to create, or ‘mine’, cryptocurrencies.
Cryptojacking Impact:
- A noticeable dip in the performance of device.
- Overheating of device batteries.
- Issue of Devices shutting down due to lack of available processing power.
- Exponential increase in electricity expenditure.
Prevention tips
- It is important to continuous monitor resources on computer (processing speed, use of power)
- Use of browser extensions which are designed to block coin mining
- More privacy-focused ad blockers.
- Install the latest software updates and patches for your operating system and all applications —especially those concerning web browsers
- Block pages that are known to deliver cryptojacking scripts
