Check if your PC being used secretly to Mine Bitcoins:
CHECK YOUR CPU USAGE:
Simply by opening your resource manager on your computer, and looking at the CPU usage, it can quickly become clear if there is indeed something sucking your processing power. A noticeable spike when visiting a certain site that should not be taxing your CPU is an obvious sign of Javascript running that is using your processing power. Additionally, if you have everything closed but CPU usage is still super high, then you may have a crypto mining malware problem.
AD BLOCKERS CAN HELP:
Mining hijacking can occur simply by visiting certain sites, but there have been instances where infected adverts on sites have also led to this CPU pirating. Researchers at security software vendor ESET have explained this process. Thus, running an ad blocker can put a stop to this. Additionally, ad blocking software can also filter out known types of in-browser miners. One such mining script is called Coinhive, which isn’t necessarily a malware.
RUN A MALWARE CHECK:
Besides from legitimate pirate mining software, there are more sophisticated forms of malware which actively penetrates the system. These are delivered through infected image files or by clicking on links leading to a malicious site. If one of these hits you, you should open up Task Manager and identify the process that is eating up all those compute cycles and terminate it from your resource monitor.
