5 Smart Ways to Protect Yourself from Cryptojackers
For more than a decade, only those people who had the essential knowledge about the newest technology and who had all the essential software and hardware aimed towards mining BTC and other cryptocurrencies. With their prices skyrocketing in the last couple of years, we can see that even more people got interested in trading cryptos.
In case you would like to more about this concept, be sure to take a look at bitcoin-compass-pro-com/login. At the same time, we can see that many cybercriminals have started paying much more attention to these. Over time, they have managed to develop the technology they use other people’s resources to mine coins for themselves. We are talking about a practice now known as cryptojacking.
What are Cryptojackers?
The term cryptojackers refers to the hackers who are tricking the user into mining cryptocurrencies for them. They are working as some sorts of parasites. They are using miner’s resources to mine coins for themselves. In some cases, the owner will not even be able to notice for quite some time, which already means that finding it when it’s too late is a possibility. Even though these cannot be described as malware, they don’t have too many differences when compared to them.
We can see some statistics are saying that there are around 500 million PCs who are infected with this kind of malware, which is a pretty high number, even when you are thinking globally, right? These are categorized into two main different types, server-side attacks, and browser-based exploits. Let’s take a look at these two.
Server and Browser Attacks
When we’re talking about browser-based attacks, it needs to be said that the criminals infect a website with a code, which typically in the form of a JavaScript file. The attack is activated by visiting the browser and running the file. The malware starts stealing all the coins mined by the browser owner’s software and they are delivered to a certain e-wallet.
In the case of server-based attacks, the attack is not aimed at the website’s visitors. The approach is widely different in this case. These attacks are performed through the association’s server infrastructure. In most cases, it occurs through cloud-based services. The goal of these attacks is to obtain the scalability to wheel up at the available CPU power.
How Can You Protect Yourself from Them?
Now, we would like to talk about a couple of ways you can protect yourself from the attacks of cryptojackers.
1. Ad-Blocker Software
Since the number of cryptojackers has skyrocketed in the last couple of years, it makes sense to see that so many different ad-blockers have decided to include the protection against them. One of the best-known ones is Coinhive, which has the task of going through all the scripts that are going through a certain browser. In case your browser already has an ad-blocker on it, chances are that you will need to choose a particular script blocker.
2. Disable JavaScript
In case you are the type of person who doesn’t want to take any kind of risks, especially when it comes down to the cryptojackers, you should turn-off the JavaScript on your browser. However, it needs to be said that disabling it can cause you some problems. The reason is that so many sites are using JavaScript. When you turn it off, you will not be able to access some of them. Therefore, you need to be sure you want to do this before you do. Certainly, we are talking about an effective way of prevention, but we wouldn’t recommend anyone to use it. The reason is pretty simple, even without us saying.
3. Deploy Browser Extensions
We can see that all the most popular browser extensions now include some extensions that can help the owner to put a stop to all these attacks. It doesn’t matter if we are talking about open-source extensions or solutions that have been developed by the browser developer. For you to understand this concept a little bit better, you should take a look at MinerBlocker or No Coin extensions. These two will have the task of carefully monitoring all the potential negative activities. The best thing about them is that you can find them for all the main browsers, like Firefox, Opera, Chrome, and Safari. . .
4. Block Domains
One of the effective solutions when it comes to preventing any crypyojacker from attacking your device is to block certain domains. Therefore, you will be able to block any one of them whom you are suspecting of being affected by some of this malware. Thankfully, we are talking about a rather simple process that will not take too much of your time. The only thing you need to do is to open the browser, find the customize part, and insert the URL you want to block. There are a couple of more complex functions you can use, but we wouldn’t recommend it simply since you will not need them.
5. Avoid Certain Sites
In the last couple of years, we can see that a pattern of sorts has been developed. We are talking about adult-themed sites. According to different statistics who are talking about cryptojackers point out these sites as the commonest places where people can come across this malware. These statistics are saying that almost 50% of the cryptojackers can be found on this kind of site. At the same time, we can see that a pretty high percentage of these can be found on media piracy sites. So, be sure to avoid all these, especially in case you don’t have any kind of protection on your device.
The Conclusion
Now that you can see how big of a danger cryptojackers can be, it is easy to understand why is so important to protect yourself against them. Here, we’ve provided you with five things you can do that. As you can see, none of these will require any specific skills of out you. Instead, you will be able to do them quickly, with the utmost assurance that they will protect you in the best possible way.
