Free Avira Antivirus Mines Cryptocurrency Too If You Let It – Why That’s (Probably) Not a Good Idea

A few days ago we learned that Norton 360 had launched the Norton Crypto option with which it was possible to use our equipment to mine cryptocurrencies if it met certain hardware requirements.

This antivirus is not the only one that allows it: there is also that option in Avira, another well-known antivirus that has an installed base of 500 million users. This company was acquired by NortonLifeLock in January 2021, which appears to be promoting this type of option as a new revenue stream. Maybe for them it is not a bad idea, but for the user it probably is: we explain why.

Avira does not explain the details of the service too clearly

Norton does maintain a FAQ that explains the terms of this option in some detail. It is disabled by default, you need to have a PC with a graphics card with 6 GB of video memory to be able to activate it and if you do, Norton takes 15% of your income.

In Avira there is also a FAQ with information about the service, but it does not specify hardware requirements or commissions. As in the previous case, the Ethereum mine service, and from Avira they create a digital wallet automatically to accumulate the income there until we decide to transfer them to an own account that, yes, must be created in Coinbase.

It seems that Avira uses the same mining software as Norton, and the funny thing is that other IT security platforms already detect Avira as malicious or insecure by the presence of that cryptocurrency mining feature.

There are several issues with using both this and Norton’s solution. The first, as we said then, which is a proposal that may be unprofitable in view of the cost of electricity.

The second, that even activating the service, many users surely do not know that there are commissions on income transfer operations, and in fact no income can be made until we have enough ETH to pay those transfer fees.

As cybersecurity expert Brian Krebs tells the hundreds of millions of Norton and Avira users Avast could join soon, which at the moment does not have a similar service but was also acquired by NortonLifeLock in August 2021.

Via | Brian Krebs