Guarding Your Digital Frontier: Introducing Cryptomining Protection

In our digital age, safeguarding our online identity is of the utmost importance. The ever-expanding digital domain has come to include our private data, sensitive documents, online behavior and, more recently, digital assets in the form of cryptocurrency.

With the advent of cryptomoney, a relatively new cyber threat has emerged – cryptojacking, in the form of cryptomining malware. This malware strain piggybacks on your device’s processing power to mine cryptocurrency without your knowledge, taking a significant toll on your device’s performance and potentially paving the way for other, more severe security risks.

Recognizing this threat, Bitdefender Total Security now encompasses a cutting-edge cryptomining protection feature. Designed with the everyday user in mind, this feature protects your device from cryptomining malware, ensuring an unfettered online experience.

Cryptomining Protection: A New Feature Against Cryptojacking Attempts

The feature will immediately become available to all Total Security subscription users and higher-tier bundles. Notifications regarding the feature's availability will be sent out, letting users choose between two unique functionalities.

Note that Cryptomining Protection is turned off by default; taking advantage of its protective capabilities requires manual activation.

Enabling Cryptomining Protection on Your Device

As mentioned, Bitdefender Total Security will notify you of the feature’s availability, allowing you to activate it on the spot, and give you a brief presentation of its capabilities and benefits. This is the easiest way to turn on cryptomining protection for your device.

However, if you missed the notification, you can find it under the “Protection” category in the main window. You can easily enable Cryptomining Protection by flipping the corresponding switch and configure it by clicking the “Settings” button.

Block All Detected Cryptomining Activity

The first Cryptomining Protection setting in the menu, called “Block all Cryptomining activities,” as its name suggests, blocks all detected cryptomining activities automatically and acts accordingly to prevent further attempts or propagation. Unless specified, this setting will be chosen by default upon activating the feature.

The setting also lets you receive notifications each time an activity is blocked on the device; or you could opt for a quieter approach that tells the feature to operate stealthily, notifying you every 24 hours via a pop-up summary.

It’s worth mentioning that the first setting is recommended for users who don’t plan to run cryptomining activities on their devices.

…or Manage Cryptomining Activities Manually

The second setting, “Detect Cryptomining activities,” provides a more hands-on approach. Upon choosing this setting, the feature detects matching activities on the system and informs you about them, but without taking further action automatically.

You can then review the event and decide how to proceed, whether by allowing the activity to unfold on your system or blocking it. Choosing the latter will kill the unwanted process and disinfect your machine to prevent it from restarting.

Advanced users can benefit from a third option, allowing them to configure exceptions to exclude from the scan. This could be useful if you want to mine cryptocurrency on your device and block all other detected activities automatically.