Cybersecurity Glossary
Cryptojacking
Using your computers or cloud account to mine cryptocurrency without your knowledge.
What Cryptojacking means
Cryptojacking installs mining software on machines or, more expensively, spins up compute in a stolen cloud account. Nothing is encrypted and nothing is obviously stolen, so it often runs for weeks. The signs are slow machines, hot laptops and an unexplained cloud bill.
Why Cryptojacking matters for small businesses and nonprofits
The direct cost lands as electricity, hardware wear or a five figure cloud invoice. The more important signal is that someone had enough access to run code in your environment, and mining may not be all they did.
What to do about Cryptojacking
- Set cloud spending alerts, which is often the first thing to notice this
- Investigate sustained high processor usage rather than dismissing it as an old machine
- Restrict who can create cloud resources and in which regions
Not sure where you stand on this?
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