CBS's Showtime caught mining crypto-coins in viewers' web browsers

[alyssa85]

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/09/25/showtime_hit_with_coinmining_script/

The websites of US telly giant CBS's Showtime contained JavaScript that secretly commandeered viewers' web browsers over the weekend to mine cryptocurrency.

The flagship Showtime.com and its instant-access ShowtimeAnytime.com sibling silently pulled in code that caused browsers to blow spare processor time calculating new Monero coins – a privacy-focused alternative to the ever-popular Bitcoin. The hidden software typically consumed as much as 60 per cent of CPU capacity on computers visiting the sites.

The scripts were written by Code Hive, a legit outfit that provides JavaScript to website owners: webmasters add the code to their pages so that they can earn slivers of cash from each visitor as an alternative to serving adverts to generate revenue. Over time, money mined by the Code-Hive-hosted scripts adds up and is transferred from Coin Hive to the site's administrators. One Monero coin, 1 XMR, is worth about $92 right now.

However, it's extremely unlikely that a large corporation like CBS would smuggle such a piece of mining code onto its dot-coms – especially since it charges subscribers to watch the hit TV shows online – suggesting someone hacked the websites' source code to insert the mining JavaScript and make a quick buck.

[Raxitto]

First, the Pirate Bay. Then the Showtime website. The theft of processing power from the computers that accessed them. The goal? - Mining crypto-coins.
The news has left many users indignant and worried. Outraged, because the sites made use of the computational power of machines without the knowledge of their owners. Worried because they feared that this could cause machine vulnerabilities.
Pirate Bay issued a justification, claiming that it made use of this device to replace the placement of advertising banners on the site. Which, to many, sounded like an unconvincing excuse. This news came in addition to the case of Microsoft servers, where hackers used the processing power of machines to mine Monero, raising $ 63,000 in three months. For those who are concerned about whether or not their machines are being used to mine crypto coins, we have some tips that might be helpful in identifying them.

[rainbow169]

I think this is not a bad idea, but it's important to give use control, so that they can be informed immediately arriving the site and can choose either to continue to see ads or use the CPU power. It will also need to remove such capability on low end computers.

[Zeeks]

I think this is not a bad idea, but it's important to give use control, so that they can be informed immediately arriving the site and can choose either to continue to see ads or use the CPU power. It will also need to remove such capability on low end computers.

Yes they need to give the people control or notice of what they are doing.
It's a worrying trend in my opinion, why would anyone want to (unknowingly) have his pc mining crypto coins for some random person or company.