In an effort to improve performance and protect its users, the open-source browser Mozilla Firefox will soon begin automatically blocking malicious cryptocurrency mining scripts.
“Many sites contain malicious scripts that, hidden from the user, use his device to mine digital currencies. These types of practices make the Internet a rather unfriendly place. All future versions of Firefox will block such scripts by default,” said company vice president Nick Nguyen.
The effectiveness of the new features will be tested in the developer build. According to Nguyen, if the experiment is successful, users will be able to start using them in the 63rd edition of Firefox.
According to information from Micro Incorporated, a cybersecurity company, in 2018 the number of hidden mining scripts increased by 96% compared to all of 2017 and by 956% compared to the first half of 2017. According to company representatives, cybercriminals are moving away from attention-grabbing methods like extortion and blackmail, and are starting to work more secretly. This method of operation does not require installing malware on the victim’s computer; instead, scammers use a Java script that automatically mines cryptocurrency every time the user visits a specific page.
Firefox is not the first browser to offer protection against malicious miners. Earlier this year, Opera developers introduced built-in protection against cryptocurrency miningin their browser for smartphones and computers. Google has also blocked all applications and extensions for cryptocurrency mining in the Chrome Web Store and Play Store. Despite this, it was recently discovered that some of these applications are still present in the Google store.
According to cryptovest.com
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