So how do you stay safe against these? How do you safeguard your PC from becoming a victim? Here are a few things you could do.
Use an AdBlocker
One way to prevent your computer from being a crypto-minng machine is using one of the many available AdBlock extensions on your favourite browser’s add-on section. Head on to the settings of the AdBlock and add your own filter. Add this to the block list “coin-hive.com/lib/coinhive.min.js” This should work with any browser that does support AdBlock add ons.
Use dedicated Anti Crypto-mining extensions
Already, some good folks out there are rolling out browser extensions to help you block websites from using your computer to mine bitcoins. One of my favoutites is minerBlock for Google Chrome from the good people over at CryptoMineDev.
It is very simple to use. Just install it on your Chrome browser, turn it on and just like that. You’re safe.
Disable Javascript from browser
To work, this trick primarily relies on a javascript code Coinhive that is hidden within the website code. This code uses the permissions and privileges of Javascript to gain access to and take advantage of your computer’s hardware to do the bitcoin mining. This maxes out your CPU usage and bugs down your system even though you may not be doing any CPU intensive tasks. To prevent this from happening, you could simply disable Javascript from your browser so Coinhive doesn’t run. This has a catch though. Javascript is used by so many websites to offer you certain features. Disabling it all together will prevent you from using some features on the websites.
