The English word miner is a miner, miner, and mining means production. This is usually applied to various natural resource developments and the people involved in them, but there is a digital alternative under the same name, although the essence is the same.
In fact, mining is not necessarily a malicious program; there is a whole class of earnings from this mining. This program works in exactly the same way as minerals are mined; it “mines” money for you, while taking away the resources of your video card.
Basic information about mining
There is a network of electronic currency called bitcoins, and there are similar ones, but they are less known. It has proven itself well due to stability and anonymity. Today, the price of Bitcoin is steadily growing, and this is due to the non-standard way of entering currency. It has no paper alternative, like any currency, it exists only on the Internet. It cannot simply be invested from the real world, but the amount gradually increases thanks to mining.
The algorithm for increasing the number of bitcoins is approximately the following: a task is automatically created, and it consists of a huge number of blocks. One of them contains a key, when someone finds it, they receive a certain number of bitcoins. Usually, entire networks of miners work on a task, spending their resources on processing the task, mainly requiring the power of a video card.
Initially, to work on the network, an ordinary home computer was enough and at the same time they received substantial rewards (at that time the price was not high) in bitcoins. As the business progressed, the number of miners began to increase and the task became more complicated. Now, when using mining on your home PC, you will hardly be able to pay the electricity costs. There are special ASIC computers that are created specifically for this purpose; the consumption is significantly lower and the power is greater.
It’s easy to find a cloud mining farm; there are plenty of them on the Internet. There are people who create their own farms, but investments are required, while others simply attract third parties, in this case you take part of the income for yourself.
The problem begins when you didn’t know anything about this type of earnings, but came across a miner virus that, without your knowledge, takes system resources and brings income to its creator. Another difficulty is when the computer lags, but you consciously want to make money and installed the program yourself, then you need to configure the miner.
Such a virus gets onto your computer along with other software that you downloaded, so you are not aware of its existence on your system, but there are sure ways to determine that it is a miner.
Miner virus, how to determine?
Perhaps you are faced with such an unpleasant problem, which is expressed in the form of a miner virus. We will discuss how to find, identify and delete it further.
So, how to detect a miner? - the very first and most important question to know for sure in which direction you should move. The following problems usually indicate the presence of a miner:
- Your computer lags when using even weak games, even though there is more than enough power;
- At rest, the PC uses 50-100% of the resources of your video card. To check, you can use the GPU-Z program, which will show the occupied resources of your video card;
- Increased noise from the cooler on the video adapter even without load.
If you have a miner on your computer, then you will experience not just one problem, but all of them at the same time, since individually they may indicate other failures. Additionally, open the “Task Manager” by pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del and in the processes tab, make sure that there are no items called mining or bitcoin, although they are often encrypted under other system processes. Typically, such an element heavily loads the system and is therefore easy to identify, just make sure that it is not a system file and must be launched on behalf of the user.
Ways to fight the virus
After identifying the process and its true purpose, we need to know how to find the miner and neutralize it. Now you need to go to the appropriate menu and find the specified program:
- Click Start and select Control Panel;
- Click on the “Programs and Features” tile;
- Find the element with the same name, select it and click on the “Delete” button.
If this method does not work, another option on how to remove the miner will help you. It is relevant if the required item is simply not in the menu, that is, the program is hidden from the system. You will need:
- In the same “Task Manager”, find the required process;
- Right-click and select “Open file storage location”;
- Now leave the folder open and in the same menu select “End process tree”, there may be several such elements, do this for each;
- Remove the virus itself and related files.
We also advise you to use an antivirus to determine the source of the problem and patch this security hole. By principle, many antivirus software does not identify the miner as a problem, but you can use Dr. Web CureIt or SpyHunter.
So, the miner itself is not dangerous, but when it is installed without your knowledge and wastes your resources for the enrichment of another, then you clearly need to get rid of such a program and it can be called a virus. Alas, like any other type of income, we may encounter unscrupulous methods of increasing profits.
If you still have questions on the topic “What is a miner?”, you can ask them in the comments
The fact that the antivirus company ESET has noted an increase in the prevalence of browser-based miners that mine cryptocurrency without the user’s knowledge. Moreover, according to data for December last year, it topped the rating of Belarusian cyber threats. In our material we will tell you how to recognize that someone is using your computer for personal gain and get rid of hidden mining.
Browser or computer
Let us remind you that mining is the process of extracting cryptocurrency using complex calculations that take place on a computer. At the moment, there are two main methods of “malicious mining”.
In the first case, the miner program is hiddenly installed on your computer and begins to constantly use its power - the processor and video card. In the second case, and this is what ESET warns about, mining only occurs when you go to an infected site (“browser mining”).
Of course, the first method is much preferable for attackers, albeit more complicated - after all, the computer first needs to be infected somehow. The second is simpler, and the attackers “get” the required power due to the large number of users visiting the site.
Main symptom
The very first (and main) symptom by which you can suspect mining is that the computer begins to constantly “slow down” in harmless situations. For example, when your cooler is noisy all the time, your laptop heats up or freezes while only a browser with three tabs is running.
It is clear that such symptoms are characteristic not only of mining - at this moment you may simply have a “heavy” background process running (for example, updating software). But if the computer constantly works in such a loaded mode, this is a serious reason for suspicion.
Unfortunately, you shouldn’t rely on antivirus software alone here. Here is what, for example, Kaspersky Lab writes about such programs:
Miners are not malicious programs. Therefore, they are included in the Riskware category we have identified - software that is legal in itself, but can be used for malicious purposes. By default, Kaspersky Internet Security does not block or remove such programs, since the user may have installed them knowingly.
The antivirus may not work in the event of hidden browser mining.
How to detect a miner?
The easiest way you can try to identify a malicious process that is “eating up” all the resources of your computer is to launch the task manager built into the system (In Windows, it is called by the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shift+Esc).
Task Manager in Windows
If you see that some incomprehensible process is loading the processor very heavily - by tens of percent - (the CPU column in the picture above), and you have not launched a “heavy” game or are not editing a video, this may well turn out to be mining.
By the way, Chrome, which is popular among Belarusians, also has its own task manager - to launch it, you need to right-click on an area free of tabs above the address bar and select the appropriate item. Then you will see which tab is causing the computer to boot.
Unfortunately, the task manager is not always useful. Modern miners know how, for example, to pause work when it starts or “hide” in standard processes, like svchost. exe, chrome. exe or steam.exe.
In this case, you can use additional, more advanced software - for example, the AnVir Task Manager program.
With its help, it is much easier to identify suspicious processes. All undefined lines are highlighted in red and you can get maximum information about each process (including hidden ones!), but the most important thing is that any process you are running can be checked on the VirusTotal website.
And what to do with it?
The easiest way is if mining occurs when opening an infected site. In this case, you just need to close this browser tab.
It’s worse if a miner program gets onto your computer. In this case, you can first try to close the malicious process in the task manager and remove it from startup, however, as a rule, not everything is so simple.
Miners may have non-standard launch methods, nThe presence of two processes that restart each other if they attempt to terminate them. In addition, it can be initiated.
Antivirus programs should come to the rescue here. If for some reason the antivirus does not “catch” the miner in standard mode, you can try recording a portable free scanner on a flash drive, for example, Web CureIt! or Kaspersky Virus Removal Tool and boot your computer in safe mode.
To launch it (on Windows, except for “ten”), you need to press the F8 key several times during boot and select the desired option. In Windows 10, this cannot be done when rebooting. Therefore, you need to open the “Run” window (Win + R key combination), enter the msconfig command there, then select the “System Configuration”, “Boot” section and set Safe Mode, and then restart the computer.
After booting into safe mode, you need to launch an anti-virus scanner from a flash drive.
As we wrote above, antiviruses do not always consider miner programs to be malicious software - after all, you can mine for yourself.
But, for example, Kaspersky Anti-Virus classifies them in the Riskware category (software with risk). To detect and remove an object from this category, you need to go to the settings of the security solution, find the “Threats and detection” section there and check the box next to “Other programs”. ESET offers a similar solution - to identify miners (including on sites you visit), you need to enable detection of potentially unwanted applications in the settings.
If mining continues after these manipulations, you can try a more radical method - reinstalling the operating system.
How to protect yourself?
If we are talking about browser-based mining, then in addition to anti-virus solutions that detect malicious javascript on sites, browser extensions have already appeared that allow you to detect miners - for example, No Coin or Mining Blocker.
If you do not want the miner program to get onto your computer, then regularly install updates offered by the operating system, and be sure to use anti-virus programs with monitoring enabled.
Here you need to remember that antiviruses may not detect a miner program, but they will almost certainly detect a dropper program, the main purpose of which is to secretly install the miner. In addition to the antivirus, you can add a couple of old, but still effective tips - do not click on suspicious links on the Internet and do not open spam messages received in your mail.
Also remember that with the installation of legal software, the likelihood of getting a miner in addition is negligible. Whereas when downloading hacked programs or “cracks”, this risk greatly increases.
What about smartphones?
A smartphone is also a computer, so the attackers’ schemes are similar. For example, at the end of last year, security experts discovered malware on Google Play that used mobile gadgets to mine cryptocurrencies without the knowledge of the owner.
A hidden miner is a virus program that uses your computer's resources to . This is done automatically without the user’s knowledge or any warnings.
Most often, you can catch a hidden miner when downloading files from unverified sources. Usually this is some kind of pirated content that is very popular among users. You can also stumble upon a similar virus when receiving various spam mailings. In any option, you get what you want, and at the same time a hidden miner or utility can be downloaded to your computer to automatically download it from the Internet.
Why is a hidden miner dangerous?
The miner forces your PC to operate at the maximum level of performance, which means that even when performing simple office tasks, the computer can be quite slow. Long-term work at the limit of its capabilities will sooner or later affect the hardware.
First of all, the video card, processor, RAM and even the cooling system may suffer, which simply cannot cope with daily stress tests.
The first sign of the presence of a miner is slowdown on simple tasks and a non-stop cooler.
Also, miners may well gain access to your personal information stored on your computer. Here, everything can be used: from simple photographs to data from various accounts and electronic wallets. And this is already very dangerous.
How does a miner manage to hide?
Typically, a separate service is responsible for the operation of the miner on your PC, which allows you to hide and disguise the threat. It is this satellite that controls the autorun and behavior of the virus, making it invisible to you.
For example, this service can pause the work of the miner when launching some heavy shooters. This allows you to free up computer resources and give them to the game so that the user does not experience slowdowns or drops in frame rate. Once the shooter is closed, the virus will start working again.
The same maintenance service is able to track the launch of system activity monitoring programs in order to quickly disable the miner by unloading it from the list of running processes. However, especially dangerous viruses may even try to disable scanning tools on your computer, eliminating detection.
How to detect a hidden miner
If you start to notice that your computer is starting to slow down and get hot, the first thing you should do is run an antivirus scan with the latest databases. In the case of simple miners there should be no problems. will be detected and eliminated. You will have to tinker with viruses that hide their presence well.
Systematic monitoring of the Task Manager, which on Windows can be opened using the key combination Ctrl + Alt + Del or Ctrl + Shift + Esc, will allow you to track hidden miners. For 10–15 minutes, you just need to observe active processes with complete inactivity. Close all programs and don’t even move your mouse.
If, in such a scenario, one of the active or suddenly appeared processes continues to load the hardware, this is a good reason to think about it. The origin of such a process can be checked using the “Details” tab or through an Internet search.
Many hidden miners that mainly use PCs may not load the central processor, which means they will not appear in the Task Manager on older versions of Windows. That is why it is better to assess the load on the hardware using specialized utilities such as AnVir Task Manager or Process Explorer. They will show much more than the standard Windows tool.
Some miners are able to independently disable the Task Manager a few minutes after it starts - this is also a sign of a potential threat.
Separately, it is worth highlighting the situation when the “Task Manager” demonstrates excessive load on the processor from the browser. This may well be the result of a web miner operating through a specific website.
How to remove a hidden miner from your computer
The first and most logical weapon in the fight against such a scourge is an antivirus, as already mentioned above. However, miners are often not recognized as malicious threats. At most, they are considered potentially dangerous, especially if they came onto the computer along with a pirated game or a hacked program.
If you do not have a powerful antivirus, you can resort to the help of small healing utilities. An example is Dr.Web CureIt! , which is often used to search for hidden miners. It is distributed free of charge.
Manually, without any third-party tools, removing the virus is also possible, but you must be 100% sure that it is the miner that you have detected. In this case, you need to go to the registry by typing regedit in Windows search, and in it, use the Ctrl + F key combination to launch an internal search (or through “Edit” → “Find”).
In the line that opens, enter the name of the process from the dispatcher behind which, in your opinion, the miner is hiding. All detected matches must be deleted through the context menu. After this, you can restart the computer and evaluate changes in the load on the hardware.
Conclusion
It is important to understand that a hidden miner is dangerous not only because of its excessive load on the PC, but also because it can intercept your personal data. At the first hint of such a threat, run a deep scan of your computer’s memory with a current antivirus.
Don't forget that your computer can slow down for a variety of reasons. A more important sign of the threat of hidden mining is excessive PC activity during idle time or when performing basic tasks. Pay attention to the operation of the video card coolers: they should not make noise when there is no load.
If you do find an unknown process that is loading your computer to capacity, you definitely need to deal with it. Using anti-virus software or manually, finding and deleting it through the registry.
When using a computer, various problems can often arise due to any malfunctions in the operation of the PC itself or, as a result, viruses can enter your computer. Which will in every possible way interfere with normal operation and interfere with the process in general. In this article, we will talk about one of the most dangerous viruses - bitcoin miner (miner virus) and how to remove it.
Computer security is a rather complex issue. Very few PC users know exactly how best to secure it so as not to encounter problems of this kind. It is possible that viruses can penetrate into those PCs that already have antivirus installed. This may be due to the fact that it was installed incorrectly or was not configured correctly after installation.
Another reason for a virus to penetrate a computer that already has an antivirus is loyalty and a small range of analysis. Most modern antiviruses work very shallowly, noticing failures only on the surface. With the help of such programs, it is impossible to analyze all the hidden places on the computer and notice truly dangerous and malicious Trojans. Let's figure out what the bitcoin miner virus is. And also - bitcoin miner, what kind of virus is this and how to “fight” it.
What is a miner virus, what harm does it pose and how to deal with it
Most modern viruses have common roots and a similar structure. So miner was no exception. Answering the question of what a miner is, it is worth saying that it is a virus from the Trojan category, which are considered the most harmful. And also, as practice shows, it is very difficult to fight them. His algorithm of actions when penetrating a computer is as follows:
- It penetrates the operating system;
- Fills up the processor space and as a result it stops functioning so quickly and smoothly;
- The miner developers themselves gain access to all user data and derive good benefits from this. Let’s say they can receive data from money services and manage it independently, without your knowledge.
In addition, as long as the virus remains on your computer, its work will be completely controlled by the developers. They can destroy the operating system, which will lead to the slowness of any processes. And also steal files that seem interesting. And, of course, they will have access to absolutely any service you use. That is, your PC, in the most literal sense, will be monitored from morning to evening. We’ll look at how to find a miner virus on a computer and how to properly deal with it a little later.
How can you infect your computer with a miner virus?
The miner, like all other viruses, penetrates the PC via the Internet. Namely through dubious sites. The virus cannot enter your computer through secure and trusted sites. If you have ever noticed, on some sites below or in any other places, there is a note that this service has been scanned by an antivirus and does not pose any threat to the user. It is almost impossible to get infected on such sites.
The miner actively penetrates your PC if you install various programs from unreliable sources. For example, fake software, all kinds of drivers and much more. This is the most common way to infect your computer.
A new way to launch virus programs is through social networks or email. Let's say you receive a letter with a link to either download or watch a video. Instead of what was promised, a virus program is very quickly installed on your PC and your PC becomes infected with a miner.
My computer's resources are being used by a miner virus
As mentioned above, the main purpose of minera infiltrating a PC is to monitor your data. There can be many goals: take interesting files, change the work structure, gain access to money program services, use the power of a video card for mining, and much more. The fact is that the developers of this virus thus earn money. They penetrate the PC operating system, take its space and data, as if eating it, and successfully sell it to other users. In a word, this is outright theft without any justification. But this is how the current world of IT technologies works, where everyone survives as best they can. Therefore, it is very important to timely check for miners. Next, let's take a closer look at how to check your computer for miners.
How to detect and localize the bitcoin miner virus (+ video)
Many who suspect a virus has appeared on their computer first of all wonder how to find a bitcoin miner virus on a PC. This virus is very harmful and large. This means that the manifestation of its presence on your PC will not take long. There are several ways to detect a miner virus on your computer:
- Before you start making sudden decisions, just watch how your PC is working. If you notice that it begins to slow down more often, produces constant errors, speaks differently, behaves differently than usual, then most likely you have become a victim of a terrible virus.
- There is another good independent method. To do this, you need to go to the task manager and observe the processes that occur there. If you see that programs that you did not use are opening, extraneous processes are happening, and the like, it means that certain malfunctions are occurring in the operation of your computer, which the developers of the miner virus have already begun to control.
- It is already clear that the appearance of a virus threatens to greatly overload the processor. Therefore, another way to detect its appearance on your computer is to reboot it, and immediately after that monitor the processor load. If, as a result of the reboot, the indicators have not changed and are still high, it means that the miner is already actively functioning on your PC.
Containing this virus is quite difficult. It is impossible to stop its spread, but only completely remove it from the computer. In order to begin the stage of removing the miner from your PC, first, you need to carefully prepare for it.
Preparing your computer to remove miner bitcoin
Finding miners on your computer is the first step to destroying it. The preparatory process is a very important stage in removing the miner virus. It will allow you to do everything as safely as possible. It will help you save all your data and get rid of this virus once and for all. So, how to remove the miner virus from your computer:
- You should take care of your data, which you do not want to lose. In order not to lose data, you need to find a medium of appropriate size. All the data you may need will be recorded on it.
- Once there is nothing very important left on the computer, you can start installing a good anti-virus program. And also get an additional update. It will allow you to scan your computer data.
- Since this virus is very malicious, it would be a good reinsurance to get a disk with the operating system. If suddenly something goes wrong, you will have the opportunity to completely reinstall the operating system and return everything to its place.
How to remove a miner from a computer: step-by-step instructions for manually removing CPU Miner
And finally, we come to the most important thing - how to remove the miner. As mentioned above, first, you need to get the necessary antivirus program. Using it, you will need to scan your computer and identify this Trojan. Once it is identified, it must be removed. It would seem that everything is so simple, but it was not so. The virus still continues to live on your computer and this is only the first step towards removing it. Next, you should do a series of actions with which you will be able to remove the miner once and for all.
Miner virus: how to find and remove
- First of all, after scanning, you will need to restart your PC to launch the BIOS program. With which you can control the operation of your computer outside of the operating system. To do this, you need to restart your PC. When starting, press the F8 button several times. Namely, until you see a black screen with various functions. Already from which you will need to select Advanced Boot Options.
- By clicking on the Advanced Boot Options button, you will again receive a number of functions from which you will need to select Safe Mode with Networking.
- Next, you will need to log in using your infected account and launch the browser.
- Then, you need to download the bedynet.ru/reimage/ program or any other reliable anti-spyware program. It must be updated immediately before scanning and delete malicious files related to the ransomware. And then you can complete the removal of the Bitcoin miner.
This way, bitcoin miner will be completely removed from your computer. But from now on, in order not to encounter the same difficulties in the future, you need to seriously think about how to secure the operation of your PC and keep your data safe and sound. Install a good antivirus, check and analyze your computer from time to time, even if everything is functioning smoothly. And also do not visit dubious sites and, of course, do not download various programs from third-party sources. If you follow these simple recommendations, you will never encounter such problems and your computer will always work as usual.
If your computer is constantly slowing down and running at maximum capacity, then this is a reason to check it for the presence of miner viruses. Let's look at how to detect a hidden miner on a computer and remove it.
What is it and why is it dangerous?
A hidden miner is a virus program that uses the performance of your PC to mine cryptocurrencies. Infection occurs through:
- malicious messages;
- downloaded files;
- spam mailing.
The video explains in more detail what mining is and how it works.
The first mentions of hidden mining appeared in 2011, but then these were isolated cases. At the beginning of 2018, this problem occupied one of the leading positions in news feeds.
The Trojan miner poses a great danger to the PC:
- Reduces the service life of hardware.
The PC operates at maximum load for a long time, which negatively affects the maximum service life:- processor;
- video cards;
- cooling systems.
- Limits performance.
When using an infected computer for their tasks, the user receives scanty performance, because the bulk of it goes to hidden mining. - Provides access to personal data.
Since the miner is a Trojan, it gains access to the user’s personal information. Recently, cases of theft of electronic wallets and passwords have become more frequent. The attacker not only uses your PC's performance, but also steals confidential data.
Note! The latest Windows update has received protection against mining. You can get acquainted with the information by clicking on the link “Windows 10 protects your PC from hidden mining.”
How to detect and remove
Advice! Scan your system with an antivirus, you may come across a regular miner that does not hide its presence. In this case, it will be detected and automatically removed by antivirus software.
It is usually quite difficult for a user to detect a Trojan, because the developers of the virus software have tried to hide its operation as much as possible. New miners are able to disguise their activities:
- Disable while the user is working with demanding applications.
- Disguise as other applications in Task Manager.
- Work only when the PC is idle.
Your computer could be infected without you even noticing it. It all depends on the ingenuity of hackers. We will try to explain in as much detail as possible how to identify malware.
Important! Be careful when deleting any file, especially if you are not sure of its purpose. You do all actions at your own peril and risk!
Via Task Manager
Let's touch on Internet mining a little. There are sites that, using a special script, gain access to the performance of your PC. A hacker, bypassing the protection of an Internet resource, uploads his malicious code there, which mines cryptocurrencies while you are on the site.
It’s very easy to understand that you’ve encountered one, because when you visit it, your computer will start to slow down, and the Task Manager will show a heavy load on the hardware. It is enough to simply leave the site to stop the mining process.
To detect malware on the system:
- Go to the Task Manager by holding down “Ctrl + Shift + Esc” at the same time.
- Observe the processes for 10 minutes of complete inactivity (including mouse movements and keystrokes).
Important! Some viruses close or block the Task Manager in order to hide their activity.
If the dispatcher closed on its own or some program began to load the system, this means that the PC is infected with the miner. - If the virus is not detected, go to the “Details” tab.
- Find a process that differs from the standard (for example, strange symbols) and write down the name.
- “Edit” → “Find”.
Important! If you are not sure that the file can be deleted, write to us in the comments, we will try to help.
- Scan the system with an antivirus (for example, we used a standard antivirus, which is located in “Start” → “Settings” → “Update and Security” → “Windows Defender”).
- Restart your PC.
Via AnVir Task Manager
The multifunctional process manager AnVir will help you detect a hidden virus.
- Download and install the utility.
- Launch it and view the running processes.
- If you are suspicious, hover your cursor over an application to display information about it.
Note! Some Trojans masquerade as a system application, but they cannot fake details.
- Then RMB → “Detailed information” → “Performance”.
- By selecting “1 day”, view the load on your PC during this time.
- If a process heavily loaded the system, hover your cursor over it → write down the name and path.
- Right-click on the process → “End Process”.
- In Windows search, type “regedit” → go to the registry.
- “Edit” → “Find”.
- Enter a file name → remove all matches.
- If threats are detected, confirm their removal.
- Restart your PC.
