Norton Antivirus is under fire for putting a crypto miner in its product

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In November, Google released a new report indicating that malicious cryptocurrency miners were using hacked Google Cloud accounts for mining. Now, it looks like Norton 360 antivirus software has found a legal way to mine cryptography using customer computers, first reported by Krebs on Security.

While the activity is legal, that doesn’t mean it’s not very suspicious.

“Norton Crypto is a feature available in Norton 360 that you can use to mine cryptocurrency when your PC is idle. Currently, Norton Crypto is limited to users with devices that meet the system requirements, ”says the company’s FAQ page.

15%?

Norton keeps 15% of all currencies mined, but says the cloud-based service that activates the program is only “opt-in,” which means customers must agree to it being activated. However, many Norton users have reported that the extractor is difficult to remove which means it is not as kosher as Norton would have us believe.

On its website, Norton tries to make it clear that it will not run the program without permission. “If you have activated Norton Crypto, but you no longer want to use the feature, you can deactivate it through your Norton Crypto dashboard,” the company says.

But because the business makes deactivation difficult, Norton Crypto can continue its energy-intensive business making a lot of profit for the business at the expense of users.

Norton Crypto will operate Ethereum cryptocurrency. “Norton creates a secure digital Ethereum wallet for every user,” the FAQ states. “The wallet key is encrypted and stored securely in the cloud. Only you have access to the wallet.

The company also says that the controversial program will only run on systems that meet certain hardware and software requirements. The program is already seeing negative reactions from customers and the media, with Boing Boing co-editor Cory Doctorow calling the system “f ****** wild”.

Will complaints and public scrutiny be enough to put an end to this madness?

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