• Patch Lady – how would you like to mine bitcoins?

    Posted on March 17, 2018 at 16:14 CDT by • Comment in the Forums


    Just a off topic to patching topic….I was googling up for something and spotted this on the Salon.com web site indicating that they are running a beta to mine currency in your browser as you view their site.

    A little background first.  We all know that the traditional ad revenue model is dead, dying, will die, etc., etc.  The number of people reading newspapers is declining (my Dad still likes the Wall Street Journal), the number of people that find ways to block and skip ads are increasing.  So it shouldn’t be THAT surprising to me that a site like Salon is beta testing using my machine (granted with my permission) to generate bitcoins in my browser.

    by allowing Salon to use your unused processing power in the background while you are browsing Salon’s free content. This happens only when you are browsing Salon.com

    It shouldn’t be surprising…but it is to me.  Given the fact that Microsoft is finding that malware is now jumping on the bitcoin bandwagon and using it to generate revenue as well.  If you find your machine a bit more sluggish than usual it’s something to review and see what is sucking up your CPU power.

    As an aside that article points out the new kid on the block Windows 10 S wasn’t vulnerable to the attack.  Keep in mind that S only allows you to install applications from the Windows store, so similar to how an Apple iPhone/ipad can only get applications from the App store, and thus an application has to be vetted first, people running Windows S version wouldn’t be able to install MediaGet, the malicious app that was driving the bitcoin mining in the background.

    Our Windows ecosystem as it stands now is still too loosy goosey.  As long as we can install anything, malware can as well.  Until the day that we only install software that is trusted and vetted, and we only let certain approved software to run on our machines we’re going to be in this situation.  It will take time to move to that model.  It’s not easy.

    And in the meantime keep an eye on your system and it’s CPU usage and if any thing “feels” weird, well.. start investigating and asking in the forum.

    Windows Patches/Security
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