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Now Even YouTube Serves Ads With CPU-draining Cryptocurrency Miners (arstechnica.com)
YouTube was recently caught displaying ads that covertly leach off visitors' CPUs and electricity to generate digital currency on behalf of anonymous attackers, it was widely reported. From a report: Word of the abusive ads started no later than Tuesday, as people took to social media sites to complain their antivirus programs were detecting cryptocurrency mining code when they visited YouTube. The warnings came even when people changed the browser they were using, and the warnings seemed to be limited to times when users were on YouTube. On Friday, researchers with antivirus provider Trend Micro said the ads helped drive a more than three-fold spike in Web miner detections. They said the attackers behind the ads were abusing Google's DoubleClick ad platform to display them to YouTube visitors in select countries, including Japan, France, Taiwan, Italy, and Spain. The ads contain JavaScript that mines the digital coin known as Monero.
This is why I run an adblocker and a script blocker.
And why I refuse to visit sites that insist I turn it off.
Speaking of which, anyone know any WebExtensions that do anti-anti-adblock? The old one was XUL.
General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
"Unoccupied CPUs" were a waste back when a CPU used the same amount of power idling as working.
Today, giving my "unoccupied CPU" a task for your benefit is theft of my battery life (time until I need to recharge), battery lifetime (total number of cycles), electricity (both direct device usage and indirect cooling needs), and device lifetime (hotter devices fail sooner).
Now, if you'd like to offer me payment for these things you wish to consume, we can talk.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Consider an algorithm such as Yescrypt (http://password-hashing.net/wiki/doku.php/yescrypt) which is a valid CPU cryptomining algorithm. My CPU (Broadwell i7 6800K) finds a share every 5 seconds with 11 threads running. I extrapolate a quad core CPU would find a share every 15-20 seconds. Those shares add up if the receiving wallet and mining pool are the same. This means wallet "iourthoesruithjvansoivrzupaweo" could have a swarm 10K workers mining for 30 seconds each on the same pool, and find 10K shares every 30 seconds.
Let's see what this adds up to in terms of cash.
My CPU (taken as reference) makes about 1.5 dollars a day. A Quad-core CPU (average desktop PC CPU) would make about 0.5 dollars a day through cryptomining. Multiply that by 10K miners (dynamic swarm), it adds up to 5K dollars a day. It's a hefty sum, assuming the website really has 10K active visitors at all times.
1K active sessions would yield 500 bucks a day, 100 active sessions would net 50 bucks a day. Even 10 active sessions would be 5 dollars a day, every day. Not bad, I'd say.
...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
I don't know why this is the first time I'm realizing this, but "ads" that cryptomine seem like a great idea. Given the amount of web browsing that is just that, with an otherwise unoccupied CPU, I'd much rather the sites I visit be earning some money directly from my use than displaying crappy ads all over and splitting that income with the middlemen.
I would be fine with this in place of ads if a) it's fully disclosed b) it's opt-in, and c) it's set to consume no more than say 25% of my CPU.
I browse on +1 so AC's need not respond, I won't see it.
At least Chrome limits background tabs to 1% of CPU and will, in future, pause javascript entirely in those pages.
If you're not willing to support my site, feel free to boycott it. However, stop stealing from me. You're not required to go to my site, but you're not welcome to violate my copyright with a derivative work in order to steal revenue from me.
First of all, they're not violating copyright by simply downloading content.
Secondly, if you're using one of these scammy ad networks (and, to my knowledge, there isn't a single one that *isn't* scammy), then you're just going to have to accept that fact that one one gives a shit about what you want.
Third party javascript nonsense had gotten so far beyond the pale, that it behooves everyone with a computer to enable ad blocking technology, for their own personal safety. This youtube crypto thing is just one of countless examples of malicious code forced upon people. If you derive income from this bullshit, then you're complicit in this and deserve every bit of scorn anyone heaps on you.
If you don't like it, then set up a patreon account so people can be assured that you're getting paid directly without they themselves getting screwed in the process with malware.
I understand why an ad network like Yahoo or Doubleclick might use javascripts. But why would the individual advertiser need a custom javascript? Just provide a PNG or JPG or MP4 and be done with it. The idea that the ad networks permit arbitrary code in the ad is utterly ridiculous.