Hidden cryptocurrency mining is gaining more and more serious momentum. And it's not even the rapidly growing rate of bitcoin, but the fact that using someone else's computer for their own purposes is becoming easier. Part of the problem is that there is no structured information on how to remove hidden miners from your computer.
Here's a step-by-step guide that will give you a complete picture of the bitcoin programs and how to remove the software.
Determine whether the computer is mine
The first thing you need to scan your computer for hidden miners. Note that this instruction does not concern professional mining, but a fraudulent method of mining cryptocurrency on the standard computer of a random user. With this option of malicious access, the owners of the devices do not suspect that their computer is used for mining.
And all because the fact of such unauthorized access is almost invisible: programs of attackers usually do not download processors and graphics cards at 100 percent. But this also happens, especially if the mining is engaged in beginners. So first, check to see if your processor is running at full capacity, and if that's the case, scroll through our article to the end. Well, if you do not find suspicious activity, then continue to read on the items.
Hidden miner: how does it work?
To begin with, once again, the hidden miner works discreetly, especially if the computer it is using has sufficient performance. But before bitcoin miner starts mining, he needs to run himself with admin rights. It is only after receiving such privileges that the miner starts working by connecting to coin farms.
That's the simple way hidden miners are installed on the computer. Therefore, we recommend to be careful and work under the account of a simple user. But if you have admin rights, then pre-examine what exactly you set. For example, most hidden miners are pumped along with innocuous utilities such as drivers and browsers. Naturally, you should forget about downloading the free software, hacked programs, and even better to completely avoid the use of torrents and TOR. It is better to visit blocked sites through the GPN
Block access to miner farms.
If you find a hidden miner, immediately turn off the Internet! Then go to the system directory of Windows and open a file called hosts for editing.
This folder is system-like, so it's hidden by default. To follow this path, turn on the system files in The Windows folder settings.
In this file, a hidden miner points the Internet path to the mining farm where the cryptocurrency is mined. Accordingly, to disable the miner's access, you need to remove all IP addresses except the system addresses. The screenshot highlights the path to one of these farms. Any similar lines with a strange URL need to be cleaned and then re-saved the file.
Note that usually ISPs fix the logs of your actions on the Internet. Unfortunately, that's where miners return to your device, so we strongly recommend using VPN logging features.
Finally get rid of the miner.
So you've cut off the miner's internet access, and he's not doing his black business any more. What's next? We have to remove it completely from the system. You can do this either with an already installed antivirus or with the help of a pre-downloaded standalone.
Run the antivirus to fully scan your computer and wait for the results. Antivirus usually detects and removes most known types of miners, especially if the most recent signature bases are used.
But, unfortunately, some miners hide behind the known names of programs - google.exe, system32.exe and others - so it is not superfluous to check all suspicious files. You can do this with an online antivirus.
And you can finally remove the miner with the help of the program from "Kaspersky Lab" TDSSKiller. In addition to the main task, this software will check the entire OS for other viral programs.
After antivirus operations, you should remove the "tails" of hidden miners from the registry. Doing this is best with the Cleaner registry cleanup program.