Epicscale.exe executable file belongs to a malevolent program that can properly be identified as a coin miner virus. That malware form utilizes your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, generally – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your personal computer almost unfunctional due to high CPU use.
What is Epicscale.exe process?
Epicscale.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Epicscale.exe – Really high CPU and GPU usage
Besides CPU usage, some of the coin miners also make use of GPU power for their operations. In that case, you will probably struggle even to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as critical as CPU for system work, so Epicscale.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use all of it. It sometimes may cause bad effects.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Epicscale.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
First of all, Epicscale.exe virus makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications now, as all CPU power is consumed by a virus. That malware does not care for your needs, all it focuses on is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely experience extremely sluggish efficiency. Pages will open up for years, any kind of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person who does a job online.
Epicscale.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Epicscale.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Cash.exe, Cash.exe, Spepopud.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Epicscale.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a solitary unpleasant activity coin miners perform to your system. Epicscale.exe coin miner also deals damage to your operating system. To perform all malevolent operations correctly, it wrecks the security components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to prevent recognition. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a lot of new entries – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your computer to a malicious mining network. All these changes are about to be gone back to the original in the process of system recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides making your PC slow, performing at peak power for long times may trigger damage to your device as well as increase power bills. PC elements are designed to easily deal with high load, but they are good with it only when they are in a good shape.
Compact and well-protected CPU fan is not very easy to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if touched while working, for example, by the user much earlier before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Epicscale.exe virus can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also tend to have very fast wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is likely an unwanted situation when the performance of your graphic card decreases on 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being used in such a way.
How did I get Epicscale.exe coin miner virus?
Coin miners are spread through different ways, but their main sources are malicious banners and programs from dubious sources
The example of malicious banners you can see in the Internet
An additional way you could get this item on your computer is by downloading it from the untrustworthy web page as a part of a program. Users who spread hacked variants of favored programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to earn money. For this reason, there is a huge lure to add in malware to the final package of the hacked app and receive a coin for each installation. Before criticizing these guys for hacking and also malware distribution, ask yourself – is it okay to avoid purchasing the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 one time than to pay a much greater sum for antivirus software as well as new parts for your PC.
How to remove the Epicscale.exe miner from my PC?
The best way to get rid of this coin miner virus is to use anti-malware software
Booting the PC into Safe Mode with Networking
Press the Start button, then choose Power, and click on Reboot while holding the Shift key on the keyboard.
Windows will reboot into recovery mode. In that mode, choose Troubleshoot→ Startup Settings→ Safe Mode with Networking. Press the corresponding button on your keyboard to choose that option.
When your system is in Safe Mode, all third-party programs, along with the majority of non-critical system components, are not launched with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.
References
- Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
- About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
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