Googleupdate.exe process belongs to a malevolent program that can accurately be recognized as a coin miner trojan. That malware type uses your hardware to mine cryptocurrencies, basically – Monero or DarkCoin1. It makes your computer roughly unusable because of high CPU usage.
What is Googleupdate.exe process?
Googleupdate.exe is a malicious process created by coin miner virus
Googleupdate.exe – Very high CPU as well as GPU usage
Besides CPU utilization, some of the coin miners also make use of GPU power for their tasks. In that case, you will likely struggle even to see the mouse cursor moving – GPU is usually utilized on 100%. It is not as critical as CPU for system work, so Googleupdate.exe coin miner viruses do not waste time on trifles and use it all. It sometimes can result in sad results.
Shortly about cryptocurrency mining
List of the typical coin miner symptoms
How dangerous is the Googleupdate.exe miner?
Coin miners does not deal damage to your files. However, they make a lot of unpleasant things with the whole system
Initially, Googleupdate.exe malware makes your system overloaded. It is unable to run your applications anymore, since all processor power is used by a virus. That malware does not care for your needs, all it pays attention to is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until browser is open, you will likely suffer from extremely slow efficiency. Pages will open for years, any kind of logins will likely take about a minute – just a headache for a person that does a job online.
Googleupdate.exe Technical Summary.
| File Name | Googleupdate.exe |
| Type | Trojan Coin Miner |
| Detection Name | Trojan:Win32/CoinMiner |
| Distribution Method | Software bundling, Intrusive advertisement, redirects to shady sites etc. |
| Similar behavior | Setpoint.exe, Cthkctrl.exe, Updreg.exe |
| Removal | Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware for automatic Googleupdate.exe removal. |
“Visible” damage is not a single negative thing coin miners perform to your personal computer. Googleupdate.exe coin miner likewise deals damage to your OS. To carry out all malicious functions successfully, it ruins the protection features of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware stops it to prevent detection. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a number of new notes – they are brought in by this trojan miner to connect your computer to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments are about to be gone back to the original in the process of PC recovery.
Hardware effects of coin miner activity
Besides decreasing your PC’s performance, running at peak power for a long period of time may cause damage to your device and increase power bills. PC elements are created to easily get along 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, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access rotors, which can be easily broke if affected while working, for instance, by the user much before the virus injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the unusually high load caused by Googleupdate.exe malware can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure3. GPUs are also prone to have increased wearing when utilized for crypto mining. It is likely an unwanted situation when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% just after 1-2 weeks of being exploited in such a way.
How did I get Googleupdate.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 thing on your computer is by downloading it from the untrustworthy site as a part of a program. People that spread hacked variants of popular programs (which do not demand the license key) have small chances to make money. Therefore, there is a very big lure to include malware to the final package of the hacked application and acquire a coin for every setup. Before criticizing these individuals for hacking and also malware spreading, ask yourself – is it alright 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 as well as new parts for your desktop.
How to remove the Googleupdate.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 programs, along with the majority of non-crucial operating system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability 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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