Cryptocurrency mining risks & How to prevent websites from using your computer in Bitcoin mining
The cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin are the digital or virtual currencies which make use of encryption for security , As they are anonymous & decentralized in nature , They can be used for making the payments that can’t be tracked by the governments , As crypto-mining has gained popularity , the website owners are now using the cryptocurrency mining scripts to use the CPU power of the visitors for earning the profits .
Cryptocurrency mining
The web runs on ads, Blocking all ads will only encourage more websites to use the cryptocurrency miners, You can notice the miner due to a huge spike in CPU usage when you visit some websites , Many websites don’t inform the users that they’re doing this , because they aren’t aware that the hacker has installed the scripts or due to the lure of the money is too strong that is against the manners .
The cryptocurrency miners are a new scourge on the web , The web pages can now embed JavaScript code that runs in your web browser to mine themselves Bitcoin by using your computer (or smartphone ) , Mining script is called Coin Hive that can be embedded in the websites without the knowledge of the visitor .
You need to protect yourself against Cryptocurrency mining , you should prevent the websites from surreptitiously using your computer , because Cryptocurrency mining causes 100% CPU usage that slows down your computer , It causes higher electric bills , It reduces the battery life , and even hurts the overall life of its components .
Bitcoin mining
There are many cryptocurrencies that can be used in Coin mining , The currency with complex algorithms like Bitcoins requires more time and processing power for mining, However, mining currencies like ‘Monero’ need lesser power and effort .
How to block cryptocurrency mining in web browser ?
When some websites use your web browser to mine crypto coins , you can find that out easily , You can prevent web pages from constantly using all your CPU resources without your permission , A lot of websites that are making TPB-like headlines are using a new service called Coin Hive for mining , There are few simple ways to block such activities .
When you’re on desktop and using Google Chrome , Firefox or Opera , You can block coin mining scripts , Just install the No Coin extension ( Google Chrome | Mozilla Firefox | Opera) , This will stop coin mining websites from running scripts on your browser and the developer has pledged to keep this list updated for the time being .
No Coin is one such free solution , It is open source , It is the most popular extension of its type , it does a great job of blocking Coin Hive & the other similar cryptocurrency miners , This open-source extension is a reliable & safe way to control how the website is interacting with your web browser , It is not available for Microsoft Edge , Apple Safari or Internet Explorer .
Popular adblocking extensions such as Adblock and uBlock have also updated their filters to block these scripts , When you use the other browsers such as Safari or Microsoft Edge , you could try using the Ghostery extension , which also blocks some of these scripts .
You can block cryptocurrency mining via antivirus apps , Most antivirus software now block cryptocurrency mining scripts , The only catch is that this feature may not be available on the free tier and you might have to pay for these , Malwarebytes is one of many antivirus apps that allow you block cryptocurrency mining scripts on Windows and Mac , It blocks these scripts across the system , so , no need to enable it individually in the browsers & apps .
On iPhone and iPad , These cryptocurrency mining websites can easily be blocked on iOS as long as you’re using Safari , There are two ways to go about this — disable Javascript , or use a content blocker app such as 1Blocker , 1Blocker lets you enable any one filter for free , so open 1Blocker and enable Block Trackers to block coin mining sites .
On Android , it’s simple enough to block cryptocurrency mining scripts if you use Firefox or Chrome , Search for No Coin , select it and tap add to Firefox , MinerBlock is an open-source tool that you can use to block cryptocurrency mining in the web browser and you can add HTTPS Everywhere which encrypts your communications with many websites , making your browsing more secure .
We can block coin mining domains in the hosts file , This is the manual way of blocking domains that are harmful or irritating , We can edit the hosts file and redirect it to 0.0.0.0. , this change blocks the mining scripts which are hosted by coin-hive.com , When come across other mining script domains , you can add them further down the line .
You can use Ad blocking to block the cryptocurrency mining , in Chrome , for AdBlock , navigate to the list of extension and find AdBlock , look for Customize > Block an ad by its URL & add the following text in the text box :
https://coin-hive.com/lib/coinhive.min.js
adblock stop mining
You can use JavaScript-blocking extensions like NoScript in Firefox , Before using it to block cryptocurrency mining in the web browser , It can break many websites as it disables all scripts running on the pages .
You can edit your hosts file to redirect them and prevent the web pages from loading the scripts , However , you’d have to keep the list of blocked miners up to date on your own , so , it is better to use an automatically updating piece of software that can maintain that list for you , like a browser extension or security program.
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