With the arrival of the cryptocurrency era came new threats from hackers as well – hidden mining, or cryptojacking. Previously hackers made a living by stealing bank card data and extortion, but now the demand for cryptocurrency has given hackers a new trade – the hidden mining of coins on computers and mobile devices using viruses. This way of getting rich is relatively legal and simple. And it can also bring hackers hundreds of thousands of dollars a day practically on autopilot. So what is hidden mining, what does it threaten the ordinary PC or mobile phone owner with, and how do you fight miner viruses?

Hidden mining is the use of a user's computer resources to mine cryptocurrency without their knowledge and consent. That is, using a virus, a hacker launches the cryptocurrency mining process on the victim's PC or mobile device and borrows part of the device's computing power. It is hard not to notice this – all programs load more slowly and periodically lag, gradually driving the innocent user to a white-hot rage.

The matter is not limited to suddenly turning a nimble PC into a turtle. The cooling system also fails. On gaming machines it begins to run continuously at full power, threatening to break down before its time. Weaker devices suffer even more – the coolers cannot cope with the load, and the computer begins to heat up fiercely, as a result of which the computer's components may not withstand the torture of elevated temperatures. Failures of the video card or motherboard are possible. Repairs will be expensive, and after such an intrusion it may even be simpler to replace the laptop with a new one. And given that today it is practically impossible to find and punish the attackers, you definitely should not count on compensation for losses.

So how do miner viruses appear on computers? In most cases, PC owners themselves cordially throw the doors open to the pests. True, the viruses disguise themselves quite well. They take the form of software that search engines periodically look for on your behalf:
- cracked games and patches for them;
- other programs distributed illegally without the copyright holder's license;
- free software whose developers use mining viruses to monetize their applications;
- OS utilities;
- browser plugins.

Dangerous software is found on sites that offer free program downloads and in app stores. Infected files are often encountered on torrent trackers. Interestingly, sometimes during the initial download you get a completely clean program. The virus appears in it only during the update.

There is another way to reach your device's computing power – infected sites. No one is safe from this trap. The only good thing about it is that stopping the brazen use of your PC for mining is extremely simple – you have to close the compromised page.

Users of torrents and video hosts with adult content are at risk. Miner viruses are especially common on such sites. Moreover, sometimes the owners of the web resources themselves infect the pages with malicious utilities for the purpose of monetization. However, you can also stumble upon a virus on a city administration website or a page with culinary recipes, onto which cunning hackers place their web products without authorization.

So what are the protective measures against miner viruses? You should start with a careful attitude toward the software you download from the internet. It is advisable to avoid downloading and installing programs from unreliable suppliers, as well as cracked software. Another simplest measure is using a powerful antivirus. And do not forget to update it regularly.

To protect against mining via infected sites, try browser plugins such as Adblock Plus or MinerBlock. In addition, it is recommended not to visit sites without ssl certificates. Usually when you try to go to such a page, a corresponding warning appears.

An additional preventive measure is regular system backups. Although this measure will not protect against the virus, it will make it easier to remove it in case of infection. When a pest is detected, it will be enough to roll back the system to a previous version not yet touched by the insidious miner.

What should you do if your computer is infected with a miner virus? If you are lucky, remove the worm manually. However, first you need to find it. The ordinary task manager will help with this. With its help you can find a process in the system that consumes a suspiciously large amount of computing power. It will also be easy to find the program's location on the hard drive and delete it. Although this is not always as simple to do as it seems. Sometimes the malicious program embeds itself so deeply in the system that it cannot be eradicated by simply deleting a file.

An antivirus scan also helps detect the pest. True, the developers of such software are always in a catch-up position relative to the creators of viruses. So your antivirus may not yet be familiar with the miner that has settled in your PC or smartphone.

If you failed to find and remove the virus manually or with an antivirus, roll the system back to the last properly working version if you have a backup. Otherwise, you will have to reinstall the system. Although there is a less radical but more costly way – to turn to a computer security specialist.