Opera Browser protects smartphones from сryptocurrency miner

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Opera, which has already presented protection from cryptocurrency miner in its desktop versions, is now adding the same function to its browsers for smartphones, the company said on Monday.

The new feature will be available on Opera Mini and Opera for Android, according to a press release, and is part of its own browser's ad-blocker function.

Opera estimates that over a billion devices worldwide have slowed down by website-based cryptocurrency miners that users do not understand are "cryptojacking" their browsers. On the other hand, web browsing, according to the company, now has more than 3 million websites with embedded cryptocurrency miners.

Consumers find it difficult to know if there are problems, there can be no visual cue that the miner uses in his browser, according to the firm. Cryptocurrency miners can overload processors of smartphones, forcing them to use 100% and potentially causing the phone to overheat.

And sometimes the damage can be permanent. According to a ZDNet article, one trojan produced so much heat in the phone that its battery became swollen, permanently damaging the phone. While excessive advertising was one of the reasons for the generation of heat, the main reason was that the phone's central processor was hijacked to mine for Monero.

According to the release, the new Opera function is already available, and the browser can be downloaded from the Google Play store.