Report: Millions of Android users have had their phone hijacked for cryptocurrency mining

You would have had to live under a rock for the past several months in order to skip the non-stop talks about cryptocurrency this year.

Massive spikes in Bitcoin value triggered a lot of people to check out cryptocurrency, and it also triggered new methods on monetizing websites...

Recently, a trend has emerged with websites using the power of their users' computers to mine cryptocurrency with their "unused computing power."

The "drive-by" campaign works by redirecting Android users to a website that hijacks their device for the purpose of mining the cryptocurrency Moreno, similar to an attack we saw on YouTube recently.

MalwareBytes doesn't have a specific number for how many users have been affected by this, but it estimates that two of the sites that played a role had at least 30 million visits each month.

Attacks like these probably won't be stopping anytime soon, so MalwareBytes recommends that you run tools on your phone, like the company's own Android app to fend against this sort of behavior.