Digital crypto-currency is all the rage right now. Everyone is getting involved and this has led to some very interesting innovations and application of the platform. The excitement is real, and rightfully so, I mean the value of bitcoins is off the roof right now. This excitement has attracted some very unscrupulous and shady characters too, only recently we heard of websites that unknowingly use your computer to mine bitcoins. This is some scary stuff, seeing as the listed culprits are some of our favourite ‘hangout’ joints on the web.
So how do you stay safe against these? How do you safeguard your PC from becoming a victim? Here are a few things you could do.
Use an AdBlocker
One way to prevent your computer from being a crypto-minng machine is using one of the many available AdBlock extensions on your favourite browser’s add-on section. Head on to the settings of the AdBlock and add your own filter. Add this to the block list “coin-hive.com/lib/coinhive.min.js”
This should work with any browser that does support AdBlock add ons.
Use dedicated Anti Crypto-mining extensions
Already, some good folks out there are rolling out browser extensions to help you block websites from using your computer to mine bitcoins. One of my favoutites is minerBlock for Google Chrome from the good people over at CryptoMineDev.
It is very simple to use. Just install it on your Chrome browser, turn it on and just like that. You’re safe.
Disable Javascript from browser
To work, this trick primarily relies on a javascript code Coinhive that is hidden within the website code. This code uses the permissions and privileges of Javascript to gain access to and take advantage of your computer’s hardware to do the bitcoin mining. This maxes out your CPU usage and bugs down your system even though you may not be doing any CPU intensive tasks.
To prevent this from happening, you could simply disable Javascript from your browser so Coinhive doesn’t run. This has a catch though. Javascript is used by so many websites to offer you certain features. Disabling it all together will prevent you from using some features on the websites.
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