Home Malware Programs Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs) 'xsocksx.exe' CPU Miner

'xsocksx.exe' CPU Miner

Posted: November 27, 2017

The 'Xsocksx.exe.' CPU Miner is part of the growing family of Trojans that are used for the mining of digital currencies. With the emergence and subsequent boom of cryptocurrency technologies such as Bitcoin, valued at close to $10,000 for a single bitcoin, and Ethereum, the creators of threats have found another venue to exploit. Through a Trojan miner, the cybercrooks can hijack the resources of the victim's computer and use them for 'mining' - the process through which a new unit of a specific cryptocurrency is generated. The Trojan miners allow the cybercrooks to sell the created digital units and reap hefty profits without the need for a massive investment into a dedicated mining facility.

Not surprisingly, having your computer infected with 'xsocksx.exe' is far from harmless. The threat takes control over your system's CPU, which could result in total processor utilization of over 70% even if the system is idle. Having your CPU under such a tremendous workload every time the computer is started will sooner or later take its toll causing malfunctions or total failure of the CPU.

Using the infected computer while over half of the CPU power is under the control of the 'xsocksx.exe' will not be easy, either. Even the most trivial tasks will take far longer to be completed - Web browsing or launching any programs will be slowed down significantly. The limited system resources left by the miner will make any more intensive task, such as playing a video game, nearly unbearable with constant freezing or stuttering.

Leaving 'xsocksx.exe.' on your system also will compound the risk of getting infected by other threats. After all, the miner has managed to sneak into your system without being detected, and it may not have been alone. That is why security experts recommend using a legitimate anti-malware software to remove 'xsocksx.exe' as soon as possible.

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