Is Norton 360 Mining Ethereum In Your Computer? If It Is, They’ll Take a 15% Cut
08 Gennaio 2022 - 1:55PM
NEWSBTC
The most popular antivirus, Norton 360, made a miner out of
everyone. Even though this has been going on for a while, the
Internet recently found out about it. And traditional Norton
customers are livid. One of the most controversial parts of the
story is the 15% cut that the company takes. This is a commercial
program that you have to pay for, so it’s only logical that people
are not ok with that. Related Reading | Research: Crypto Mining
Malware Still Abundant Despite Market Decline Of course, Norton’s
Ethereum mining program is nothing new. Seven months ago, when they
were testing it out, our sister site Bitcoinist reported on it and
said: “A select number of Norton 360 customers, who joined the
early adopter program, received their invites to mine Ethereum
today. The program is expected to expand to include all 13 million
Norton customers in the coming months. In explaining the odd
pairing, the firm said cryptocurrency mining is fraught with risk
and often involves disabling security and allowing “unvetted code”.
This leaves miners vulnerable to skimmed earnings and ransomware.
Norton claims to address these issues by enabling users to safely
and easily mine cryptocurrency through the user-friendly Norton 360
platform.” Ok, so it’s for your own good. How could you doubt the
fine folks at Norton? The Internet Discovers The Existence Of
Norton ’s Ethereum Program The mining program went viral when Boing
Boing editor Cory Doctorow tweeted, “Norton “Antivirus” now
sneakily installs cryptomining software on your computer, and then
SKIMS A COMMISSION.” This is fucking wild. Norton "Antivirus" now
sneakily installs cryptomining software on your computer, and then
SKIMS A COMMISSION. https://t.co/6s2otyCd78 — Cory Doctorow
(@doctorow) January 4, 2022 Security expert and journalist Brian
Krebs took a look at the case and here’s what he came up with:
“According to the FAQ posted on its site, “Norton Crypto” will mine
Ethereum (ETH) cryptocurrency while the customer’s computer is
idle. The FAQ also says Norton Crypto will only run on systems that
meet certain hardware and software requirements (such as an NVIDIA
graphics card with at least 6 GB of memory).” That doesn’t sound
that bad. Plus, “NortonLifeLock says Norton Crypto is an opt-in
feature only and is not enabled without user permission.” Ok, but,
is the “accept” button checked from the get-go? And, why can’t
people uninstall the program then? In a written statement,
NortonLifeLock responded: “If users have turned on Norton
Crypto but no longer wish to use the feature, it can be disabled by
temporarily shutting off ‘tamper protection’ (which allows users to
modify the Norton installation) and deleting NCrypt.exe from your
computer.” ETH price chart for 01/08/2021 on FTX | Source: ETH/USD
on TradingView.com What Was The Public’s Response To The Fact That
They Are Ethereum Miners? According to Krebs, “longtime Norton
customers were horrified at the prospect of their antivirus product
installing coin-mining software, regardless of whether the mining
service was turned off by default”. This is what the program should
protect them from. And they don’t know that this is for their own
good and they should trust the Norton corporation blindly. On
the other hand, the ones that were ok with it and wanted to collect
their ETH faced another hurdle. Gas fees. If that fact is hard to
navigate for experienced Ethereum users, imagine what it was for
novices that weren’t even aware of their new profession as Ethereum
miners. To help with visualization, just read the Norton FAQ’s
explanation: “Transfers of cryptocurrencies may result in
transaction fees (also known as “gas” fees) paid to the users of
the cryptocurrency blockchain network who process the transaction.
In addition, if you choose to exchange crypto for another currency,
you may be required to pay fees to an exchange facilitating the
transaction. Transaction fees fluctuate due to cryptocurrency
market conditions and other factors. These fees are not set by
Norton.” Even though what they’re saying is correct, how would a
civilian react to the past year’s ridiculous Ethereum gas fees?
Summary And Conclusion, The Norton Situation For a quick assessment
of the situation, we turn to resistance.money’s Bradley Rettler,
who tweeted. “What?! Norton antivirus now mines Ethereum *by
default*. The “accept” button is checked automatically and once
installed it’s very difficult to remove. And they take 15% of what
you mine!” What?! Norton antivirus now mines Ethereum *by default*
— the "accept" button is checked automatically and once installed
it's very difficult to remove. And they take 15% of what you mine!
https://t.co/5OXDE76KEA — Bradley Rettler (@rettlerb) January 6,
2022 Yeah, that’s about it. For the implications, we go back to
security expert Brian Krebs: “I guess what bothers me most about
Norton Crypto is that it will be introducing millions of perhaps
less savvy Internet users to the world of cryptocurrency, which
comes with its own set of unique security and privacy challenges
that require users to “level up” their personal security practices
in fairly significant ways.” Related Reading | Powerbridge
Technologies Set To Launch Bitcoin And Ethereum Mining In Hong Kong
That seems to be about right as well. What would the
Proof-Of-Work critics say, now that half of the planet is an
Ethereum miner? And what will happen to the program once Ethereum
turns to Proof-Of-Stake? Burning questions. Featured Image by
Sigmund on Unsplash | Charts by TradingView
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