Some porn sites hijack computer power to mine cryptocoins

According to security firm 360 Netlab, 241 of the top 100,000 websites as rated by Alexa contain code that uses visitor's computer power to mine cryptocurrency.

Porn sites represent almost half of those practicing computer power theft

Of the 241 offending sites, 49 percent were porn sites.

The sites had names such as streamxxx.tv the type of site likely to be visited by a novice porn viewer who was watching porn for the first time and had Googled "porn". A proxy site for the popular torrent site The Pirate Bay also contained the code.

As the value of cryptocoins increased so did mining by hackers. Some methods have been inventive as hackers hacked an Argentine internet provider.

Effects of mining hacks on compuiters

The thief uses code that infects your browser. It can use your computer resources and thus slow down performance. Last year, Symantec predicted that in-browser mining would turn into an arms race as the hackers come up with more inventive and invasive ways of mining cryptocoins using stolen computer power.

A new version of the browser Opera has a built-in defense against mine hacking as shown on the appended video.

360Netlab

360Netlab continuously analyzes DNS traffic. Based on these analyses they have developed a DNSMon detection system that is able to analyses various anomalies and correlations in the DNS traffic.

Very few sites actually have the mining codes embedded in them, just 0.24 percent of the top 100,000 websites according to Alexa. Of the top 300,000 there were 629 websites or just 0.21 percent offenders. Aside from porno sites ad sites contained 7 percent of offending sites, mining also 7 percent with film and television having 6 percent.

360Netlab blog describes the various mining site families, providers that are entering an increasing market. The site also discusses the main advantages as well as disadvantages of using the DNSMon system to detect correlations between content site domain and mining site domains.

Previously published in Digital Journal

NEM cryptocoin struggles to recover from theft

Back on January 26th the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck was hacked with a loss of $523 million of NEM (XEM) coins worth about $534 million US at the time.

to

Theft of NEM coins and Coincheck exchange

Only NEM coins were stolen. The NEM team decided not to solve the problem by a hard fork since the the theft was the result of lax security by Coincheck rather than security problems with the NEM platform. NEM is instead creating an automated tagging system. The system will follow the money and tag any account that receives tainted funds.

As reported in a recent Digital Journal article, the Japanese Financial Services Agency (FSA) raided Coincheck on Friday. Japanese Finance Minister Taro Aso announced that an investigation had been launched to preserve client assets.

Earlier this week, the FSA gave Coincheck until February 13 to investigate the cause of the incident, strengthen risk management and adopt preventative remedies.

Coincheck has said it will use its own funds to reimburse all of its 260,000 customers who lost holdings, at a rate of 88.549 yen per NEM costing the firm about 46.3 billion yen or $422 million US.

NEM

Wikipedia describes NEM as follows:NEM is a peer-to-peer cryptocurrency and blockchain platform launched on March 31, 2015.[1] ... NEM has a stated goal of a wide distribution model and has introduced new features to blockchain technology such as its proof-of-importance (POI) algorithm, multisignature accounts, encrypted messaging, and an Eigentrust++ reputation system. The NEM blockchain software is used in a commercial blockchain called Mijin,[4] which is being tested by financial institutions and private companies in Japan and internationally.[5]

Wikipedia describes the EgenTrust algorithm:EgenTrust algorithm is a reputation management algorithm for peer-to-peer networks, developed by Sep Kamvar, Mario Schlosser, and Hector Garcia-Molina.[1] The algorithm provides each peer in the network a unique global trust value based on the peer's history of uploads and thus aims to reduce the number of inauthentic files in a P2P network.

The NEM mission

The NEM Foundation has its own website setting out its vision for NEM.

The Foundation is incorporated in Singapore. The sole purpose of the foundation is"to introduce, educate, and promote the use of the NEM blockchain technology platform on an international scale to all industries and institutions." The Foundation claims that its blockchain technology can alter the manner every industry operates:"The Foundation details the opportunities in every industry to effectively store transaction, customer, and supplier data in a transparent immutable ledger."

NEM is one of several cryptocoin platforms who are seeking to develop positive relations with government, main stream finanbcial institutions, and academia, seeing its role as providing blockchain solutions to their problems.

Present price of NEM.

According to CoinMarketCap the present price off NEM is $0.5572958. Its market cap is $5,156,621,999. This is a far cry from an earlier high and down more than 11.0 percent on the day. Most cryptocoins are down on the day, includiing bitcoin.

Previously published in Digital Journal