Affiliate links on Android Authority may earn us a commission.Learn more.
Millions of Android phones hijacked to mine cryptocurrency
June 21, 2025
Mining cryptocurrencytakes a ton of processing power. In fact, in the case ofBitcoin, the amount of money one would spend on equipment and the electrical power needed to run that equipment would essentially never pay itself off in the end.
There aremany other cryptocurrencies besides Bitcoin, and mining them is more lucrative. But why buy a bunch of equipment for mining when you can justhijack other computersand make them do the work for you?
That’s exactly what hackers didto millions of Android phones via a malicious ad redirect scam,according to Malwarebytes. The exact methodology used is not completely clear, but it appears users downloaded infected apps that quickly redirected them to a website. The website directly laid out that it was using the infected device to mine cryptocurrency, and would only stop when the user entered a valid CAPTCHA code. You can see the site (and the resulting spike in processor use) in the image at the top of this article.
The average length of time a user spent on this malicious site was 4 minutes, but the site had over 30 million visits per month. Add that up, and the hackers definitely mined a large amount of crypto.
Smartphone usersare notoriously lax about the security of their devices. For example,a Pew Research study in 2017concluded that 28% of smartphone owners don’t even have a screen lock or other security feature to prevent access to their phones. If they can’t be bothered to protect their phones physically, how many do you think havesome form of malware protectioninstalled?
Malwarebytes recommends using web filters and security software to keep your phone safe, and it’s common sense to only download apps from theGoogle Play Store, as you’re much less likely to get infected programs that way.
Interested in securing your phone?This articlelays out some helpful tips!
Thank you for being part of our community. Read ourComment Policybefore posting.
