First of all, the Anti-Botnet Advisory Center Botfree at eco – Association of the Internet Industry explains what a crypto currency such as Bitcoin actually is. This is virtual money, i.e. a digital means of payment that is not managed by a single government, authority, or bank. The principles of cryptography are used to organize a decentralized and secure payment system. All transactions, as well as the creation of new bitcoins, are distributed and decentralized via the computer network of all participants. The provision of the necessary computing power is remunerated in bitcoins.
This is exactly where some users come in and make the computing power of their computers available and thus “mine” for crypto currency. However, this is only worthwhile if you have many powerful computers “mining” around the clock. This leads to what can be described as mining farms. However, a lot of money has to be initially invested and the running costs for the hardware and above all the necessary electricity are high.
Who uses crypto mining?
Probably this is why resourceful programmers came up with the idea of writing scripts to “tap” computer performance from less sophisticated users. With these scripts, websites are used to act as gold diggers and exploit visitors to the website. When you call up the website, a script called Coinhive is started in the background, which uses a certain percentage of your computer to run crypto mining. This usually happens without your consent. You will only notice it when your computer suddenly becomes “paralyzed”, or when the battery of your mobile phone or laptop runs out at an unusually quick speed.
Unfortunately, this doesn’t only happen on websites of a dubious nature, but many webmasters also use such scripts to top up their spare earnings. Coinhive in the meantime has several clones, known as Crypto-Loot, Minemytraffic, Coin Have, Ppoi or Coinblind.
How can I protect myself from crypto mining?
You can protect yourself from crypto mining using JavaScript, which initially prohibits all scripts as a rule, only allowing them where specifically required. This can be done with browser extensions like NoScript or similar Add-ons. For Google Chrome users there is the Add-on No Coin.
