Mining Pirates

Looks like servers can now run JavaScript to use your CPU as a method of mining digital currency.
https://blog.sucuri.net/2017/09/hacked-websites-mine-crypocurrencies.html

As if using our cookies and history for advertising isn't enough, now they want our processing to make their money... and without asking for permission.

 

Oh joy, oh rupture.
Gotta love some evil bahstages for hijacking your CPU. Arrgh, what next? Can you see if they're using your machine this way?

 

I'm sure there is some way to see a process running, but it may just look like your browser is just using extra CPU.

If you see a spike in CPU usage when visiting a particular website that shouldn’t really be that taxing on your processor; or if you have everything closed but CPU usage is still super high, then you may have a crypto mining malware problem. It’s hard to say what “normal” CPU usage looks like, since computer processing power and the applications people run vary so much, but a suddenly elevated level of CPU usage would indicate an abnormal increase in demand for processing power.

https://qz.com/1085171/how-to-tell-...ining-cryptocurrency-and-what-to-do-about-it/

 

I dunno how to see my processor usage. In the bad old operating system days (which now worsens by the hour-almost) it was easy, but I dunno how to see this value in Linux. I know, oh the shame of it. Sorry for being so ignorant.

 

In Linux its called System Monitor
You can probably just click your Menu and type "System Monitor"
Then click the processes tab and you can see everything running behind-the-scenes

 

Thank you booman! Typing in "Activity Monitor" didn't seem to work, but choosing "System Monitor" revealed that my CPU usage goes between 0% and 3% for each of the four cores. With up to 20% momentarily. Seems OK to me? Thanks again!

 

Oops sorry about that. I meant "System Monitor"
I keep getting Mac's "Activity Monitor" and "System Monitor" mixed up.

 

Thank you, glad it was close!