Your Computer May Have Been Used For Mining Cryptocurrency Without Your Knowledge. 500 Million Computers Have Been Affected.
Adguard, the company behind the advertising blocking program of the same name analysed the top 100,000 websites ranked by Alexa. It looked for cryptocurrency mining scripts and found that 220 of these websites had installed scripts such as Coinhive and JSEcoin and had utilized their visitors’ computers to mine cryptocurrency without their knowledge.
The most common script used by these unethical websites is the in-browser cryptocurrency mining script which is launched when an unsuspecting visitor opened their main page. It was estimated that the 220 sites have unique visitors totalling 500 million which means that half a billion computers are affected. Most of the visitors are from these 4 countries namely United States (18.7%), India (13.4%), Russia (12.4%) and Brazil (8.1%). These websites have made a fortune without virtually any cost and it seems that currency mining have replace advertisement as a source of revenue.
Most of the 220 sites using the mining scripts are video streaming sites. When users download videos, they keep their browsers open in the site for a long time, making it ideal for mining. So the next time you download a “free” video, you are actually paying for it by unwitting letting your computer being used for mining cryptocurrency. Please help me to share this news to alert other Steemians.
Source: Adguard Research
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I would point out the the JSECoin script notifies the visitor about the mining and allows them to opt out. I don't see anything unethical about that. This is just merely an alternative to advertising (and a less disruptive one if you ask me). It also only mines for the time you are actually on the page. Your computer is not infected.
If the visitor is being informed, I suppose then it is not a problem. By the way, that was a very old post of mine. Here is my latest post.
https://steemit.com/life/@positivesteem/positive-reflections-7-wonderful-ways-that-self-love-can-transform-you
Following you now.
I know... I was searching for something else and just happened to run across it :)
I am glad that bumped into my article and we managed to make a connection.
How crazy is that ! lol
People are basically just using you (sounds more like centralised system).
Hope an authority will do something about it
This is very unethical. These companies are earning money at our expense.
Good post. Illicit crypto minining will become more popular as the cryptocurrencies demand increases.
I am sure that it will be. I hope the authorities will do something about this. Following you now.
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Re-steemed mate. That script should be blocked by the browsers.
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Thank you for your support. Following you now.
Fortunately I have Adguard, it warned me that www.GoMovies.to tried to use my computer for mining. Never going to that site again.
It is very unethical thing to do. Most of the affected users are blissfully unaware.