IT Services in Atlanta: Understanding and Preventing Cryptojacking

Hackers use a variety of methods to achieve their desired goals. They usually want to make a profit, and this is often through selling confidential data or receiving a ransom. In recent years, with the growth of cryptocurrencies, a new cyber-attack has been on the rise—cryptojacking. IT services experts in Atlanta can help you understand what this is and how you can protect your company from it.

What Is Cryptojacking?

The basic idea behind cryptojacking is to highjack someone else’s computer to mine for cryptocurrencies. There are many different cryptocurrencies besides the more popular bitcoin. Mining for these requires a lot of computer processing power to make those monetary gains. Hackers have found a way to do this cryptomining on computers without the owners being aware of what is happening.

The benefits to the hacker of this new form of cyber-attack are numerous. Cryptojacking is easy to deploy, hard to detect, and hard to trace. It generates money continuously, whereas the success rate of ransomware is not always high.

There are two main ways that cryptojacking occurs. The cryptocurrency mining scripts can be loaded on to the victim’s computer through phishing schemes. When the victim clicks on a harmless-looking link, this can start running the cryptomining code on their computer.

The second way for undercover mining to occur is on the victim’s browser. The script can be inserted into a website or an ad. When the victim visits this page or engages with the ad, this can activate the code to start running.

For the computer owner, it can be difficult to detect that cryptojacking is taking place. No private data is accessed, stolen, or locked down. All the mining takes place in the background. One of the main effects of this is slowing down the computer. Identifying when you have been cryptojacked is important, and IT services providers in Atlanta can assist with that.

How to Guard Against Cryptojacking

There are various ways to stay informed about cryptojacking and to prevent an attack on your company devices. The most important is awareness and training to recognize phishing scams and irregular computer behavior. You should also invest in ad-blocking or anti-cryptomining extensions on your web browsers. Mobile device management, network monitoring, web filtering, and keeping your browsers and programs updated are all important.

MIS Solutions, Inc. can help your company prevent and recover from cryptojacking. We offer a range of IT services for businesses in Atlanta. Contact us now to get started!

Schedule a free 15-minute discovery call
We’ll discuss your IT requirements and assess whether we’re the right fit for you.

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