Crypto glossary
Cryptojacking
Cryptojacking is the covert use of someone else's computer, phone, server or cloud account to mine cryptocurrency, leaving the victim with the costs.
In a cryptojacking attack, the criminal does not steal coins directly; they steal computing power. Mining code runs hidden on infected PCs, on hacked websites that make visitors' browsers mine while the page is open, or on compromised servers and cloud accounts. The attacker collects the rewards while victims pay the electricity, hardware wear and cloud bills.
Monero is the usual target, because its RandomX algorithm is designed to run well on ordinary CPUs and its privacy makes the proceeds harder to trace. Browser mining peaked around 2017–2018 with scripts such as Coinhive, which shut down in 2019. The bigger threat today is cloud cryptojacking: attackers use leaked access keys or misconfigured containers to spin up large numbers of instances, sometimes running up huge bills in days.
Symptoms include slow devices, fans running hard, overheating and unexpected cloud spending. Because it rarely destroys data, cryptojacking is often underestimated, but the same access could be used for worse. It is distinct from legitimate mining apps that users install knowingly, and from ransomware, which demands payment instead of quietly taking resources.
Example
An attacker finds cloud credentials in a public code repository, launches hundreds of GPU instances to mine and leaves the company with a five-figure bill before the alert triggers.
Related terms
Latest articles on Cryptojacking
- Cryptojacking Theft Surges by 399%, New Report Shows
- Threat Analysts Discover a New Cryptojacking Malware
- Researchers Identify Chinese Cryptojacking Malware that has Infected More than 50,000 Servers Worldwide
- Japanese court acquits a defendant of cryptojacking who used Coinhive
- Symantec Found 8 Cryptojacking Apps on the Microsoft Store That Mine Monero [XMR] Without Users’ Knowledge