Japan Cracks Down On Illegal Cryptocurrency Mining

Cryptojacking is becoming more and more popular in Japan. Cryptojacking involves the use of computers and machines without the permissions of the users in order to mine the cryptocurrencies. As a result, the Japanese police is cracking down on such hackers which are using the machines without any authorization. In most of the cases, the victims do not even know that their machines are being used for cryptocurrency mining.

Charges to be pressed by police:

Also, after the instances are discovered, the police is not ignoring the criminals. They are actually pressing charges. As recently as 2017, some of the popular websites in Japan forced the viewers to install a program. As a result, the program started mining cryptocurrency with the computers on which it was installed. All of this was done in a completely clandestine manner. As a result, the owners of the machines did not know that their machines were being used for mining cryptocurrency.

CoinHive:

Coinhive is the name of the software which is using the computers to mine cryptocurrency. It is available easily to all website owners. Website owners are making the users download this program in order to mine the cryptocurrency. As a result, many users indirectly allow the hackers permission to use the computers for cryptocurrency mining.

The justification for Criminal Case:

According to the Japanese police, since the computer was not used with the consent of the user, it amounts to criminal activity. As a result, the police is planning on filing criminal charges against the hackers or the owners of the website.

According to the Japanese police, the website owners do not put out proper notices about mining cryptocurrency. This was one of the main reasons why it was actually done without the consent of the users.

Moreover, it amounts to illegally storing information and software in the computers of the victims. This is another charge on which criminal cases are being filed against the website owners.

All over the world, Cryptojacking is becoming more and more common. Even though it is not entirely legal but more and more websites, as well as software developers, are resorting to this method in order to increase their revenue. It remains to be seen whether the other authorities all over the world start acting on cryptojackers or whether these attempts continue. Also, it seems like the instances of cryptojacking are not just limited to computers but also impacting mobile phones.