In an effort to secure more computing power to solve mathematical puzzles to win cryptocurrencies, hackers and some website owners have planted crypto code on popular sites to use machines from those that visit the site without their knowledge, to generate virtual currency. Chris Olson, CEO at The Media Trust commented below.
Chris Olson, CEO at The Media Trust:
“As cryptocurrencies have grown in popularity and value, cryptocurrency mining has turned into a lucrative business. As ad-blocking adoption continues, some ad-supported websites are turning to cyptomining to boost revenue. However, the cryptomining activity is not transparent, and users typically only notice when the device experiences unexpected behavior, i.e., slow processing or activity when the device should be idle. This type of disclosure failure not only violates of the “user-website operator” relationship, but also sets the stage for additional unwanted activity in the form of malware, user data collection, toolbar drops, and more. In today’s changing regulatory environment, website operators should be transparent regarding the activity executing on user devices and should also adopt more rigorous security controls to deter leverage of their code by bad actors.”
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