One of the biggest technology revolutions of our time is the block chain. It powers all cryptocurrencies and has tons of other applications, too. Folks who got into the game early are now multimillionaires and it is even claimed by some that Satoshi Nakomoto, the mysterious creator of Bitcoins is someday going to be the world’s first trillionaire.
It is enough incentive for anyone to want to try and cash in on the cryptocurrency craze and that’s what the Win32.CoinMiner is all about. It is a virus or simply a malware that uses a computer’s resources to mine cryptocurrency such as Monero, Bitcoins, DarkCoin, and Ethereum. The coins earned are then claimed by cybercriminals.
The Win32.CoinMiner will take about 70% of all computing resources for its operations and for this reason, it can make a computer very slow and/or unresponsive.
The following are some of the symptoms of the Win32.CoinMiner malware infection:
- High CPU and Graphic cards usage
- Unresponsive or very slow computer
- Programs launching slowly
- Overheating
What Does Win32.CoinMiner Do?
To understand what the Win32.CoinMiner malware can do, it is important to understand what the craft of cryptomining entails. Cryptominining is the process of verifying of cryptocurrency transactions. Those that are able to verify the authenticity of transactions within a block chain are rewarded with coins. Depending on the nature of these transactions and the blockchain itself, the process can be very energy intensive. It is so energy intensive that Bitcoin mining now consumes more energy than the entire nation of Switzerland and that’s just one cryptocurrency.
When the Win32.CoinMiner cryptojacker infects a device, it turns it into a miner for cybercriminals who reap the benefits of the mining campaign as any tokens that are earned are forwarded to a remote control server.
While cryptomining is the mainstay of the Win32.CoinMiner malware, it is not the only thing that it can do on an infected device. It can also modify Windows OS and browser settings, install malicious software, and give cybercriminals remote access to your computer’s files and resources. Some of the browser add-ons that the malware installs also act as adwares.
Win32.CoinMiner can also steal sensitive user information from a computer and hand it to cybercriminals who exploit it for their nefarious goals. In short, the Win32.CoinMiner Trojan is a very bad software package that needs to be removed as soon as it is detected.
How to Remove Win32.CoinMiner
How do you get rid of the Win32.CoinMiner? The most effective way of dealing with malware entities, including the Win32.CoinMiner is by using an anti-malware software. Not all anti-malware software is capable of handling the task so you will have to choose well. A good candidate for the removal process is the powerful Outbyte Anti-Malware.
Download it and run your device on Safe Mode as that way, the Win32.CoinMiner malware will not be powered as an autostart item.
Another way of removing the virus is via the Windows Task Manager. The Task Manager monitors all processes that are running on a device and you can use it to highlight processes that are consuming too much computing resources.
To open the Task Manager, press the Ctrl, Alt and Delete keys on the keyboard. Go to the Processes tab and look for a process that is taking too much computing power. The Win32.CoinMiner Trojan will likely be at the top of the list. Once you see the process that you are looking for, right-click to End Task and right-click again to Open file location. You now need to delete all the files and folders that you find in that location.
The other way of deleting the files is via the Control Panel. Go to the Control Panel > Programs > Uninstall programs and look for any suspicious or unwanted programs. Remove them by clicking uninstall.
Finally, there is the matter of browser extensions. Most cryptojackers will attach malicious extension to popular web browsers and these too need to be removed, otherwise the problem might not go away. For this, you will either need to reset the browsers to their default settings or uninstall the unfamiliar extensions.
The manual steps might seem daunting and if they are, you should consider using a PC repair tool to perform all the tasks that have been described above. A PC repair tool also comes with the added advantage of deleting junk files and repairing broken registry entries.