CryptoJacking is the unauthorized use of your device to mine digital currency. The number of the cryptocurrency malware infections that we handle has significantly increased since fall 2017. You may want to check our latest posts on the new trends in the cryptocurrency mining malware that has exploded in popularity among the hackers:

Crypto Mining Malware on Popular Code Repositories

Bitcoin Mining Using Visitors' Machines

The good news is that CryptoJacking has already been deemed malicious by the cybersecurity industry and has also been agreed to be put in the same category as malware. This type of activity exhausts the CPU power of the user machine causing the device to overheat, affecting its performance and in some cases even damaging it physically.

As of this writing, we see some 17,000++ infected websites (reference publicwww) with the ability to mine digital currency using visitors' machines - in-browser cryptojacking.

For Users:

• Always surf with caution and only visit websites that you trust. You can check the website using our free scanner here: Free Online Website Malware Scanner
• Be vigilant. There is no safer way than to be paranoid while using the Internet. When you receive a link via WhatsApp, Facebook or other platform, make sure you trust the source and double check using the website scanner. The tactics that are usually employed to lure you into visiting the link are free coupons, discounts (like in one campaign we encountered that disguised as IKEA coupons distributer), fake news and similar.
• Keep your OS and anti-malware products updated.
• If you suspect that your machine is infected with CryptoJacking malware, check the CPU usage of your machine and if it is hitting the 100% rating. Check which application is using the most of it, if you see that it is your browser, you can just immediately kill that process.

For Website Owners:

• Keep your website updated. That includes all themes and plugins.
• Check your logs regularly.
• Check the server status regularly.
• Make sure you have proper cyber security risk management in place.

Here at Quttera, we help website owners to remove this type of malware, harden the website and improve the overall security of the domain. If you suspect that your website is infected and having trouble removing it, you may check our products here: ThreatSign - Website Anti Malware

For other issues and help: Quttera's help-desk