Norton Crypto, the controversial cryptomining feature of Norton 360

Experts warn that the popular antivirus product Norton 360 has installed a cryptocurrency miner on its customers’ computers.

Many users ignore that Norton 360 comes with a cryptomining feature, dubbed Norton Crypto, that could allow them to earn money mining Ethereum (ETH) cryptocurrency while the customer’s computer is idle. Norton keeps a 15% of the mined cryptocurrency. The feature is disabled by default and users can opt-in to profit from the mining activity, however many of them claim it is difficult to uninstall.

“However, according to mAxius and other users, there is no way to fully opt out of the program, and you actually have to dig into NCrypt.exe in your computer’s directory to delete it.” reported DigitalTrends.

“Norton Crypto is a feature made available in Norton 360 which you can utilize for mining cryptocurrency when your PC is idle. Currently, Norton Crypto is limited to users with devices that meet the required system requirements.” states the FAQ page for Norton Crypto. “Will Norton 360 mine my device without my permission?
No. In addition to having a device that meets system requirements, you must also turn on Norton Crypto on your device. If you have turned on Norton Crypto, but you no longer want to use the feature, you can disable it through your Norton Crypto dashboard.”

Early this year, Boing Boing co-editor Cory Doctorow warned that the mining service would run by default on systems running the Norton 360 security solution, but NortonLifeLock denied it.

NortonLifeLock also provided instructions to remove the mining program.

“Norton Crypto is an opt-in feature only and is not enabled without user permission. If users have turned on Norton Crypto but no longer wish to use the feature, it can be disabled through Norton 360 by temporarily shutting off “tamper protection” (which allows users to modify the Norton installation) and deleting NCrypt.exe from your computer.” states the company.

The choice to add a crypto miner to a security suite is considered by many users absurd.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Norton)

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Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.