Crypto mining is more popular than ever these days, and unprecedented competition, combined with the rising costs of power and hardware, have driven some miners to deploy nefarious methods to try and cash in. Cryptojackers have been using Chrome extensions to infect computers, and Google is taking action to curtail further attacks.
Cryptojackers use obfuscated code to secretly take advantage of infected computers’ processing power and mine crypto in the background, which comes at a hefty performance costs to unsuspecting users and violates their privacy.
Google is looking to combat this by banning all Chrome extensions with obfuscated code, or in simple terms, code used to conceal the malicious functionality of the extension. Google reported that over 70% of all malicious extensions contained obfuscated code, so banning its use and encouraging clearly written and transparent apps makes sense.
In 2018, crypto malware has seen almost a 500% rise, and with mining profit margins getting thinner, it is only prudent for Google to try to intervene sooner rather than later. Several government websites in India were recently hacked, infecting hundreds of thousands of users with cryptojacking malware, disrupting government services and slowing down users’ computers.
ICOBox co-founder Daria Generalova, thinks this kind of intervention from Google is a positive step for crypto users:
“crypto has been kind of like the Wild West, and that has both positive and negative sides. The lack of regulation has presented incredible opportunity, but as crypto industry matures we need clear guidelines to ensure that we’re not basing large swaths of the market on illegitimate, and ultimately cumbersome, sources like malware.”
Just last week, upwards of $60 million was lost in crypto hacks. Daria believes that this is an urgent call to update blockchain platforms’ security.
“The world is finally coming around to widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies, but we have to provide more stability before they can truly be implemented globally. Preventing hacks and combating malware will only further spur crypto growth in the long run.”
The ethos surrounding crypto has always emphasized user autonomy, transparency, and privacy, and malware secretly taking over personal computers for mining does not fit that ideology. Skeptics worry that curtailing mining in any way could adversely affect the markets. But it seems logical that preventing the propagation of malware mining now, especially as hackers set their sights on the new wave of IoT devices, is key to ensuring that the crypto market will remain open and efficient and that the technology will continue to flourish and bring further innovations to the world.