Last month, we reported that torrent site The Pirate Bay starting using visitors’ CPUs to mine cryptocurrency. A Pirate Bay spokesperson called the embedded mining a temporary test. However, The Pirate Bay is at it again, now using a different method to exploit users’ computers, TorrentFreak reports.
Pirate Bay’s New Crytpo Mining Scheme
The Pirate Bay’s previous sneaking cypto mining used an embedded JavaScript. The new method, however, utilises a Coinhive-powered ad script. Thankfully, most ad blocking software seems effective at blocking this mining. Visitors without ad blocking, though, will experience a significant CPU usage spike.
Opt-Out?
The Pirate Bay does not allow visitors to explicitly opt-out of crypto mining duties. This policy appears to be designed by Coinhive, rather than TPB. In fact, Coinhive makes it a point of principle. Coinhive said (via TorrentFreak):
“We will verify this opt-in on our servers and will implement it in a way that it can not be circumvented. We will pledge to keep the opt-in intact at all times, without exceptions.”
Potential Comeuppance
While the move is sure to anger users, there’s not much they can do to stop TPB. However, a Pirate Bay service provider may have something to say on the matter. Last week, CDN provider CloudFlare suspended ProxyBunker for pulling a similar trick. All things being equal, The Pirate Bay looks set to lose its CloudFlare DDoS protection, too.
The Pirate Bay is yet to comment on its crypto mining scheme.
