Units of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin aren't created by a central bank like regular money but are generated or 'mined' by computers solving complex equations. Cryptojacking involves using someone's computer without their knowledge, perhaps for just seconds at a time, to mine a cryptocurrency.. Click here to read more on cryptojacking.


According to Malwarebytes, a new malware has been found on Android phones which uses the affected phone for mining crypto currencies. Researchers revealed that more than 60 million Android phones have been affected. 

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Android phones happen to be sitting ducks for crypto-jackers due to the lack of web filtering, warning software and a general lack of antivirus softwares installed in Android devices. The report further reveals that total five cryptocurrency mining websites get a total of 800,000 visits a day. This is the part of the cybercrime that has been going on since Novermber 2017.

The researchers claim, “While Android users may be redirected from regular browsing, we believe that infected apps containing ad modules are loading similar chains leading to this cryptomining page. This is unfortunately common in the Android ecosystem, especially with so-called “free” apps.”



The researchers also suggest that this malicious cryptocurrency mining informs that visitors that they are being redirected to the websites which are used to mine cryptocurrency which is then used to pay for server traffic. After this a captcha code is sent to verify which is same for all the users.




The researcher adds, “We identified several identical domains all using the same CAPTCHA code, and yet having different Coinhive site keys (see our indicators of compromise for the full details). The first one was registered in late November 2017, and new domains have been created since then, always with the same template.”



The researchers concluded, “The threat landscape has changed dramatically over the past few months, with many actors jumping on the cryptocurrency bandwagon. Malware-based miners, as well as their web-based counterparts, are booming and offering online criminals new revenue sources.”

Now it's natural wonder if your phone is one of the 60 million phones. A crypto-jacked phone will be utilising 85-90% of processing power even when the phone is idle. You can check your phone's CPU usage by downloading CPU-Z or similar apps. 

Thank you for reading, if you have any suggestion use the comments section to let us know. Goodbye for now!

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