Fsscan.exe process is related to a harmful application that can properly be defined as a coin miner trojan. That malware form uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, primarily – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your system roughly unfunctional due to high CPU use.
What is Fsscan.exe process?
Fsscan.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Fsscan.exe – Extremely high CPU and GPU usage
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners additionally use GPU power for their tasks. In that case, you will probably struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as crucial as processor for system work, so Fsscan.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use all of it. It often can lead to unhappy consequences.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Fsscan.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Initially, Fsscan.exe virus makes your computer overloaded. It is not able to run your applications anymore, since all CPU power is used by a malware. That malware does not care for your demands, all it focuses on is generating income on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely suffer from exceptionally slow performance. Pages can open up for years, any type of logins will take about a minute – just a horror story for a person who does a job online.
Fsscan.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Fsscan.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Googleupdate.exe, Agent.exe, Ccupdate.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Fsscan.exe removal. |
“Visible” harm is not a single bad thing coin miners do to your system. Fsscan.exe coin miner additionally deals damage to your operating system. To execute all malevolent functions effectively, it wrecks the security features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent detection. If you open the HOSTS file, you will likely see a load of new entries – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your PC to a malicious cryptomining network. All these changes shall be gone back to the original in the process of computer recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your PC’s performance, running at peak power for a long period of time can trigger damage to your machine and increase electricity bills. Hardware elements are designed to easily deal with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.
Compact and covered processor fan is not very easy to damage. Meanwhile, GPUs have large and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if touched while running, for example, by the user much earlier before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the really high load caused by Fsscan.exe can easily lead to GPU failure3. Graphic cards are also tend to have increased wearing when used for cryptocurrency mining. It is likely an unwanted case when your GPU’s performance plunges 20-30% just after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Fsscan.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
One more way you could get this item on your PC is by downloading it from the suspicious website as a part of a program. People who spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to earn money. Therefore, there is a huge lure to add malware to the final package of the hacked application and acquire a coin for each setup. Before blaming these guys for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid buying the program in this manner? It is much cheaper to pay $20-$30 at once than to pay a much greater figure for antivirus software and new parts for your computer.
How to remove the Fsscan.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 PC is in Safe Mode, all third-party applications, along with the majority of non-crucial Windows components, are not started with the system start. That allows you to clean the system without dealing with high CPU 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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