With every discovery come people who are trying to take advantage of it. Cryptocurrencies are no different. Once they gained popularity and started making hard-working people rich came those who wanted to steal from them. The latest form of cybercriminals is called cryptojackers. The crime they commit is called cryptojacking. It revolves around stealing digital currencies without the need to trade for them, mine them, or even use sophisticated hardware and pay expensive electric bills. So, to put it plainly, they take all of the benefits and none of the flaws of dealing with virtual currencies.
It’s no wonder people are interested in doing this, as the savings they make are enormous. Mining requires a lot of electricity. For all the BTC currently being mined, we have a consumption of 73Twh of energy per year. An average European country such as Austria spends this much. This is not all. This much energy consumption leaves a lousy carbon footprint, and the one, all of the BTC miners left behind them, is the size of Denmark. When you think about it, it is a lot of electric power, and someone needs to pay the bill. If you feel like cryptojackers, then there’s no need to get too distracted by this. There are people that you can’t take advantage of. But please don’t go down that road. Instead, learn how to protect yourself from criminals.
Cryptojacking attack aims at the computers of those who are not aware of what is going on and are using their mining hardware. So, when they hit the jackpot and mine some Bitcoin, you get nothing while they take the reward, for example, on your computer. The worst part is that this is a simple process that goes unnoticed for the most part. But, it’s not like you can’t do anything against it. We are here to talk about the subject of defense against these hackers. How to protect your crypto exchange from cryptojackers must be something you asked yourself without having an answer. Well, below you have a few things you need to know about this subject. Let’s start the lesson.
Train Your IT Team
It all comes down to the necessary training. People who you employ need to be aware of all the dangers that can come your way. With activity on this subject, they can be prepared to understand cryptojacking. Not only that, with the understanding there will come the ability to detect it and consequently stove it away from your exchange. Those who are trained in this sphere know how to recognize malware signs and how to deal with incoming issues. Before anything else, you need to make sure that capable people surround you.
Educate The Employees
The IT team can’t do everything on its own. The entire company needs to be on the same page regarding a severe issue like this one. The employees are the first to know when the attack is happening by following their computers’ behavior. There are a few signs of an ongoing cryptojacking attack. For one, your computer will work slower than usual, and the chances of overheating are massive.
Furthermore, there’s a small matter of cybersecurity. You need to be safe at your workplace. This means that there shouldn’t be any clicking on shady emails and downloading of untrustworthy links. Everything you access needs to be verified. It is even dangerous to do this on your device if you are connected to an official network. You can never be safe enough.
Use Anti-Cryptomining Extensions
When there are bad guys doing mayhem, good ones are trying to prevent any further damage. This is what gave birth to anti-crypto mining extensions. The scripts that start the cryptojacking process are almost always deployed in web browsers. From there, they’ll try to invade your computer. You can prevent this from happening by installing an extension that attempted to prevent this from happening. Some of the best options you can have on the market include minerBlock, No Coin, and Anti Miner. They’re not 100% bulletproof, but you need to start building a wall somewhere. If you have no fear of cryptojakcers and want to do the crypto trading and mining nonetheless, you can head straight to bitcoineranew.com/login. Log in and get the adventure started.
Use Ad-Blockers
Ad-Blockers have been around for a while now. No, I do not want to listen to the latest Taylor Swift video, and Ad-Blocker did me a favor and had my back against YouTube since I can remember. Luckily for all of you out there not aware of the possibility of being cryptojacked, it has your back too. Cryptojacking scripts come embedded from all over the place, and Ad-Blocker can do you a favor against them by detecting and blocking all malicious attacks.
Disable JavaScript
Your computer can get infected in many ways, and one of them is through JavaScript. When working at a crypto exchange, you’ll be online browsing for most of your day. This means your computer is opened to attack from JavaScript plains. You can prevent this from happening by disabling JavaScript. This is a hard old school option as this move will block many other features you’ll need while browsing. You need to have this in mind if you opt for this move. But, everything should be considered when you have an invisible enemy.
Conclusion
Unfortunately, cryptojacking is a new form of cybercriminal, and its popularity is growing. In 2017, the Coinhive, a library that fueled the mining scripts that harm people, set it all in motion. There was no intention on their part, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Today, they have a new version called AuthedMine, but despite this novelty, the old one wrecking havoc is still out there. This means that many people with bad intentions are still out there with means to hurt you. This is why you’re advised to follow our tips closely.