The continuous demand and popularity as well as a sudden increase in the prices of various types of cryptocurrencies has aroused a wide scale interest. Instead of all that popularity and demand, the future of digital currency is still uncertain due to many reasons.
Cybercriminals played a critical role in this scenario when they started to demand ransom in the form of cryptocurrencies, most notably Bitcoin, which is the most popular and precious of these cryptocurrencies. It was already expected due to the safe and anonymous transaction facility. As a result, the demand of cryptocurrencies increased and automatically led to the mining of cryptocurrencies.
That’s why Microsoft has recently released a blog post elaborating the increasing threats of malicious cryptocurrency miners. Let’s see what actually cryptocurrency mining is:
Cryptocurrency Mining
Talking in simple words, coin or cryptocurrency mining is the process of running complex mathematical calculations in order to maintain the blockchain ledger. Though this process gets you a very small amount of coins but it pays well as the prices have gone up during the past few years. As a matter of fact, cryptocurrency mining will celebrate its 10th year in 2019. Because of the continued use of high level computing and uninterruptible power supply, it is not a too much popular practice. It is an intensive task that requires significant resources from dedicated processors and other hardware including heavy duty graphic cards.
Measures from Microsoft to Block Miners’ Attack
As mentioned earlier, Microsoft has shown some serious concern in this regard. The main reason is that technically, cryptocurrency mining can come in various malicious forms and can be implemented in a lot of ways. The largest threat is the so-called cryptojacking. Cryptojacking refers to remote browser-based coin mining that uses background resources to mine when a user visits the malicious URL turning his computer into a host. The same thing can also infect your computer with unwanted applications, while some hackers might be able to modify the startup settings of your computer, so every time you boot it, the unwanted malicious application will run in the background affecting your system speed.
The main reason for Microsoft’s concern is the core issue associated with the loss of computer resources. Corporate setups can face a huge drain of their available resources.
Precautionary Measures
Fortunately, Microsoft has successfully blocked a major attack at the beginning of this month.
In order to stay protected, Microsoft has recommended to use advanced machine learning detection modes in Windows Defender ATP to identify and prevent such malicious threats.
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