Cryptojacking & Guidelines while Working from Home.

Due to COVID 19 situation all over the world, IT professionals started working from home. Cyber Security must be the most important. While working remotely can provide more flexibility and spare people a long commute, it could also come with a notable risk leaving professionals more vulnerable to cyberattacks without the added security of an home/office network.

Cryptojacking has become an increasingly popular way for bad guys to extract money from targets in the form of cryptocurrency.

Cryptojacking is the unauthorized use of a computer, tablet, mobile phone, or connected home device by cybercriminals to mine for cryptocurrency. It is a form of cyber attack in which a hacker hijacks a target's processing power to mine cryptocurrency on the hacker's behalf.

Cryptojackers have more than one way to enslave your computer. One method works like classic malware. You click on a malicious link in an email and it loads cryptomining code directly onto your computer. Once your computer is infected, the cryptojacker starts working around the clock to mine cryptocurrency while staying hidden in the background. Because it resides on your PC, it’s local and persistent threat that has infected the computer itself.

Symptoms of cryptojacking
High processor usage on your device
Sluggish or unusually slow response times
Overheating of your device

Whether you’ve been cryptojacked locally on your system, or through the browser, it can be difficult to manually detect the intrusion after the fact. Likewise, finding the origin of the high CPU usage can be difficult. Processes might be hiding themselves or masking as something legitimate in order to hinder you from stopping the abuse. As a bonus to the cryptojackers, when your computer is running at maximum capacity, it will run ultra slow, and therefore be harder to troubleshoot. As with all other malware precautions, it’s much better to install security before you become a victim.

Turn off your work laptop
Most people aren't in the habit of shutting down their devices at the end of the workday. But it's a simple way to make yourself more secure. Shutting down and powering back up your work laptop can prevent viruses or malware from properly embedding themselves in your devices. Some types of malware that reside on a device's memory and gets erased when it's shut down. It's also as simple as temporarily closing an "open line" for new attacks.

Most people leave it on for days, weeks, or whatever, and they only turn it off when something slows down. They just need to reset, to get in the habit of turning it off so it doesn't become a gateway of malware directly into your company.

It is also recommended to do the same with your smartphone at the end of each workday. They're the greatest risk because we put so much information into our phone.