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by John W. Simek, Vice President of Sensei Enterprises, Inc.

Free Chrome Extension Prevents Cryptojacking

July 26, 2018

Ransomware is still prevalent, however there is a new favorite attack that is gaining in popularity. Cryptojacking is where your computing device is used to mine cryptocurrency. In other words, the processing power of your computer is used to generate revenue for somebody else. Most of the time you won't even know it's happening. In-browser cryptojacking works by embedding a JavaScript component in a website that auto-executes once loaded in a victim's browser. No malicious code installation required. That's the bad news.

The good news is that Qualys has released a free Chrome extension called BrowserCheck CoinBlocker that "…enables blocking of browser based coin-mining attacks. Along with blacklisting & whitelisting of domains, it also supports advanced javascript scanning to identify & block malicious javascript functions." Qualys also plans Safari, Firefox and Internet Explorer versions.

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