We scroll, they mine (Topic)

While browsing popular sites, we have no idea that someone is using the power of our computer for their own enrichment at the same time.

Miners come up with new ways to get electronic money every time. In particular, a JavaScript miner for the Monero cryptocurrency has recently appeared, and the new product is called CoinHive. In just a week, more than 2.2 million users unwittingly connected to it.

The peculiarity of this miner is that it allows you to use the computers of visitors while they are simply viewing information on the site. But, interestingly, not all sites inform users about this. Most don't.

So how does it work? How can someone use your computer to get rich?

How can a site access the resources of a user's computer while, for example, he is viewing news there?

Banner ads that are found on many sites use java-script - a special program required to provide functionality. Through it, miners run scripts that load your computer almost 100%, since it does a very large number of calculations. That is, while you are on some Internet page, the computer mines cryptocurrency for someone. And if thousands of computers do it in parallel, the benefits are tangible. Thanks to this approach, the owners of one site earn 50 thousand dollars a month.

How can you find out if your computer is being used for mining cryptocurrencies?

You will hear that the fan cooling the processor will begin to hum loudly, hysterically, but the system unit still heats up. And the computer itself can start working very slowly. And people who are at least a little versed in programming, in case of doubt about a particular site, can view its program code. It's not that difficult: press the key combination Ctrl + U and see if the code contains entries related to coin-hive.com.

Is there a universal way to protect yourself from such actions?

Yes, there is. These are the so-called ad blockers - programs designed to block ads from being shown. They usually detect and block scripts that mine cryptocurrency.

The Topic of Article: We scroll, they mine.
Author: Jake Pinkman