PolitiFact is using your computer to mine bitcoins



The hack was discovered Friday by security researcher Troy Mursch, who noticed that visiting Politifact.com caused his computer's CPU to run at its maximum capacity.



The anomaly left telltale signs of Coin Hive — a piece of code that can be installed on websites that, when active, diverts unused computational power on visitors' computers toward generating a Bitcoin-like currency called Monero.

Under ordinary circumstances, said Mursch, Coin Hive is used by some websites as an alternative to advertising. But in the case of PolitiFact, it's programmed to run multiple versions of Coin Hive simultaneously, basically bringing any visitor's computer to a processing halt.

The phenomenon was soon confirmed by security journalist Brian Krebs.

The issue may be related to a third-party ad provider, claimed Aaron Sharockman, executive director of PolitiFact, which is owned by the Tampa Bay Times.

“It's frustrating,” he said. “I'm escalating now with our ad and IT folks and I'll get back to you.”



https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/10/13/hackers-have-turned-politifacts-website-into-a-trap-for-your-pc/