China’s Qihoo 360 Built Crypto Mining Monitoring Software to Support Crackdown

Chinese cybersecurity giant Qihoo 360 said in a WeChat post on Tuesday that it has built a system to monitor crypto mining operations that will assist the government’s crackdown on the industry.

The monitoring system is aimed at government agencies and companies that want to comply with China’s latest crackdown on crypto mining. The software can provide miners’ internet protocol (IP) address, geographical location, network type and connection frequency, and suggest methods of how to dispose of them, Qihoo 360 said.
Last week, Chinese users couldn’t connect to some of the world’s largest mining pools because of “DNS (domain name system) poisoning.” That type of attack means that the pool’s domain names – for example, CoinDesk.com –were directed away from their actual IP addresses, where their servers are.
Qihoo 360 found that 109,000 mining IP addresses were active daily on average in November, mostly in the provinces of Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shandong, the company said. Miners mainly use home broadband, enterprise-dedicated internet connections and data centers, Qihoo 360 said.
The software uses the company’s proprietary network traffic monitoring capabilities, big data analysis and active defense mechanisms.

DISCLOSURE

Please note that our privacy policy, terms of use, cookies, and do not sell my personal information has been updated.

The leader in news and information on cryptocurrency, digital assets and the future of money, CoinDesk is a media outlet that strives for the highest journalistic standards and abides by a strict set of editorial policies. CoinDesk is an independent operating subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which invests in cryptocurrencies and blockchain startups. As part of their compensation, certain CoinDesk employees, including editorial employees, may receive exposure to DCG equity in the form of stock appreciation rights, which vest over a multi-year period. CoinDesk journalists are not allowed to purchase stock outright in DCG.

Eliza Gkritsi

Eliza Gkritsi is CoinDesk's crypto mining reporter based in Asia.

Follow @egreechee on Twitter

Learn more about Consensus 2024, CoinDesk’s longest-running and most influential event that brings together all sides of crypto, blockchain and Web3. Head to consensus.coindesk.com to register and buy your pass now.