Malicious mining code installed on these websites will use visitors’ computers to mine cryptocurrencies. One scan of the most popular websites found hundreds harbouring the malicious mining code.
Crypto-mining works by solving complex mathematical problems. As the number of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies increases, these problem become more complex, requiring a lot of computing power which can be provided by linking several computers to work together on the same problem.
A security researcher has scanned the code behind several popular websites to see which ones are running the widely used Coin Hive mining script, reports BBC.
Many sites use this and others, such as JSE Coin, legitimately to generate some money from their steady stream of visitors. Metrics published on the Coin Hive site suggest that a site that gets one million visitors a month would make about USD 116 in the Monero cryptocurrency by mining.
Coin Hives developers said it had also taken action against malicious use.
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