{"id":17447,"date":"2018-04-08T08:00:32","date_gmt":"2018-04-08T12:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/?p=17447"},"modified":"2022-04-28T08:51:04","modified_gmt":"2022-04-28T12:51:04","slug":"your-android-device-is-a-slave-to-cryptocurrency-malware","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/your-android-device-is-a-slave-to-cryptocurrency-malware\/","title":{"rendered":"Your Android Device is a Slave to Cryptocurrency Malware"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Hackers have quickly discovered that they can infect Android phones with cryptocurrency malware, forcing devices into using precious CPU power to serve them. A new piece of malware, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/thehackernews.com\/2018\/02\/cryptocurrency-mining-android.html?utm_source=feedburner&amp;utm_medium=feed&amp;utm_campaign=Feed%3A+TheHackersNews+%28The+Hackers+News+-+Security+Blog%29&amp;_m=3n.009a.1678.kk0ao0bzne.10mq\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">known as ADB.Miner<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is doing just that. The general term is called \u201cmining for cryptocurrency\u201d. A cryptocurrency is an asset that can be used similar to any other currency, trading for goods or services, but the difference is it\u2019s digitally based and untraceable. The mining process itself allows for the discovery of new bits of digital currency. If a hacker is sneaking in on your device, \u00a0how might it be affecting you?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Once a piece of mining malware has attached itself to your Android, it will relentlessly use the CPU and battery life to obtain digital currency. In the process, you may find the battery life of your phone draining or even heating up suddenly. Scarily enough, some bits of mining malware have learned to clone themselves, which means the virus can transfer to other devices on a network that your phone is connected to.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Read More: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/malware-thats-stealing-bitcoins-stop\/\"><b>The Malware That\u2019s Stealing Your Bitcoins (and How to Stop it)<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Take these tips to heart to better protect yourself from nasty viruses such as the recently discovered cryptocurrency malware attack.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Third-Party Apps Don\u2019t Play Around<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While there\u2019s no way to guarantee that malware won\u2019t be nested in the apps you download, you can reduce your chances of infection by sticking to a reliable store such as the Google Play Store or the Amazon Appstore. Just this past January, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.digitaltrends.com\/mobile\/google-removes-play-store-apps-malware\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Google removed sixty different compromised apps<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from its store. Sticking to reputable app stores is a smart way to stay away from shady sources.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Listen When Apps Are Speaking<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">When you download a new application to your Android phone, it will typically make you aware of any permissions it requires such as scanning your contacts to modifying the device itself. Determine what an application probably doesn\u2019t need and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidcentral.com\/look-application-permissions\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">understand what each permission allows<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> an app to access. Use common sense here, if a calculator app needs access to your camera, microphone, and contact list &#8211; something is dodgy. You\u2019re better off deleting the app than taking a risk. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Call in the Virus Scanning Reinforcements<br \/>\n<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Truthfully, it\u2019s nearly impossible to stay up to date, detect, and avoid every strain of malware out there. The good news is there are antivirus applications that can help. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/app.appsflyer.com\/com.psafe.msuite?pid=Blog&amp;c=Your_Android_Device_ Slave_Cryptocurrency\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">dfndr security<\/a> is one reliable app that has a full-virus scan feature<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, which scans your Android phone\u2019s memory and SD card for any threats, removing them completely. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just you alone can\u2019t fight off these cryptocurrency miners, but having these tips and a strong security app will no longer make you a slave to hackers looking to hog your phone\u2019s power.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cryptocurrencies have hackers looking for new ways to gain computing power for greedy purposes. Your smartphone could be next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[1203,1673,4328,259,182,249],"class_list":["post-17447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-security","tag-android-phone","tag-android-tips","tag-antivirus-protection","tag-hackers","tag-malware","tag-security"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17447"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17447\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17555,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17447\/revisions\/17555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.psafe.com\/en\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}