You may not have heard the term Cryptojacking but it is one of the
newest threats to your computer security. The good news is that it is
not malicious in the sense that it won't destroy your data. The bad news
is that it will most likely slow your computer down and decrease
responsiveness of your system.
Cryptojacking is the use of your computer's processor
(CPU) to mine crypto currencies (see my article on crypto currencies for more info). The reason this has become such a big
problem is because it is reasonably trivial for cryptojacking to occur.
All it takes is for a website to load a piece of javascript through your
web browser, and it will start the mining process. You will probably
not even notice this initially. You can check if your CPU is spiking by
opening the task manager in Windows (press ctl+shift+esc) and then click
on the performance tab. If the CPU graph is showing a lot of activity
then it is possibly a cryptojacking script. You can easily test web
browser by going to https://cryptojackingtest.com.
The site will attempt to load a cryptomining script on your web browser
and will determine if your browser is vulnerable to these scripts. If
your web browser is vulnerable, you can load an adblocker extension
(such as ghostery ghostery.com or privacy badger eff.org/privacybadger).
Test again once this is loaded to be sure it is effective. The Opera
browser has built in protection for cryptojacking, so is another option.
