Torrent sites are now turning to mining bitcoin using your computer to keep the lights on. Pirate Bay has recently been found to be using visitor’s computers to mine Bitcoin. The website uses some Javascript-based bitcoin miner embedded on its website that automatically executes itself once your visit the site to mine bitcoin. It is possible this kickass is also using the same tactic.
We used task manager on Windows to show our CPU usage. We noticed that the usage spiked once we opened this Kickass torrent site and went back to normal once we closed the site. Related post:How to Protect Your Computer From Becoming a Crypto-Mining Machine
We then used more sophisticated tools on Linux — specifically htop to drill down on specific processes that we actually infringing on our CPU usage. Htop showed Chrome tabs were the culprit and this happened with Kickass torrent opened. So be aware. Torrent sites are coming for your CPU cycles. Image: blog.ipleaders.in
