What is Ecco.exe process?

As I have mentioned before, Ecco.exe is a coin miner trojan virus. The names of the .exe file may be different, however, the impacts are usually the same. Considering that coin miners aim at cryptocurrency mining, they utilize all available hardware power of your PC to run this operation. This malware does not care about the fact that you may need to make use of your computer for other activities – it will consistently use over 80% of your CPU power.

Ecco.exe – Really high CPU as well as GPU usage

Besides CPU consumption, some of the coin miners additionally utilize GPU power for their tasks. In that situation, you will likely struggle also to see the mouse arrow moving – GPU is often utilized on 100%. It is not as important as CPU for system work, so Ecco.exe coin miner viruses don’t waste time on trifles and use all of it. It often may cause unhappy consequences.

Crypto mining is a term that means the operation of calculating the transaction block hash. That is a basic element of anything based on the blockchain technology. Since this operation takes a lot of calculations, a high-end computer is required. Exactly, the graphic card is better for this purpose, because they have more cores available. Cryptocurrency mining farms are usually constructed of tens and hundreds of GPUs to conduct their activity effectively. Such systems are not usable for “classic” purposes, like gaming or web browsing. Crooks who make profit via this coin miner use someones’ hardware instead, even if they are used for the regular activity.²

List of the typical coin miner symptoms

How dangerous is the Ecco.exe miner?

Initially, Ecco.exe malware makes your PC overloaded. It is not able to run your applications now, since all CPU power is consumed by a malware. That malware does not care for your necessities, all it focuses on is making money on you. Even if you are patient, and you waited until web browser is open, you will likely suffer from extremely slow efficiency. Pages will open for years, any type of logins will take about a minute – just a headache for a person that does a job online.

Ecco.exe Technical Summary.

“Visible” damage is not a solitary negative activity coin miners perform to your PC. Ecco.exe coin miner also deals damage to your OS. To complete all malevolent functions effectively, it ruins the security components of your system. You will likely see your Microsoft Defender disabled – malware halts it to avoid recognition. If you check the HOSTS file, you will likely see a ton of new entries – they are added by this trojan miner to connect your system to a malicious cryptomining network. All these adjustments shall be reverted to the initial state in the process of computer recovery.

Hardware effects of coin miner activity

Besides slowing down your PC, performing at peak power for a long period of time can trigger damage to your device as well as increase electricity bills. PC components are created to easily get along with high load, but they can do so only in case when they are in a good shape.

Tiny and covered CPU fan is quite hard to broke. Meanwhile, graphic cards have big and easy-to-access fans, which can be easily broke if affected while spinning, for example, by the user much before the coin-miner injection. Malfunctioning cooling system, together with the extremely high load caused by Ecco.exe miner can easily lead to graphic processing unit failure³. Video cards are also tend to have fast wearing when used for crypto mining. It is likely an unwanted case when your GPU’s performance decreases on 20-30% just after several weeks of being exploited in such a way.

How did I get Ecco.exe coin miner virus?

Coin miners are one of the most prevalent malicious programs through “major” viruses. Adware sometimes works as a carrier for Ecco.exe malware infiltration: it shows you the banners, which include a link to malware downloading. Sure, this abstract “malware” may belong to any kind – yet another adware, spyware, rogue or backdoor. But the statistics show that about 30% of all viruses spread through the malicious banners are coin miners – and Ecco.exe is right one of them.⁴

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 unreliable web page as a part of a program. Users that spread hacked versions of well-known programs (which do not need the license key) have small chances to get paid. Therefore, there is a huge lure to add malware to the final package of the hacked app and get a coin for every setup. Prior to blaming these individuals for hacking and malware spreading, ask yourself – is it OK to avoid purchasing the program in such a way? 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 PC.

How to remove the Ecco.exe miner from my PC?

Eliminating such a virus involves the use of specific tool. Proper anti-malware program must have high efficiency at scanning and be lightweight – in order to create no problems with utilization also on weak computers. On top of that, it is recommended to have on-run protection in your security tool – to stop the virus even before it launches. Microsoft Defender lacks these elements for various factors. That’s why I’d suggest you to use a third-party anti-malware program for that reason. GridinSoft Anti-Malware is an ideal option that fits all of the discussed characteristics.⁵

Prior to the malware removal, it is important to reboot your Windows into Safe Mode with Networking. Since Ecco.exe miner consumes a lot of processor capacity, it is required to halt it before launching the security program. Otherwise, your scan will last for years, even though the GridinSoft program is pretty lightweight.

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, just like the majority of non-critical operating system components, are not started with the system start. That gives you the ability to clean the PC without dealing with high processor usage of the coin miner.

Remove Ecco.exe coin miner virus with GridinSoft Anti-Malware

Download and install GridinSoft Anti-Malware. You can use this anti-malware program for free during its 6-day trial period. In that term, all functions are available, and it takes no payments to remove malware from your system.

After activating your free trial, start Full scan. It may last up to 10 minutes. You may use the PC as usual.

When the scan is finished, press the Clean Now button to remove all detected elements from your system. This procedure takes less than a minute.

Now, you are good to go. Reboot your PC into a normal Windows mode and use just as there was nothing malicious.

References

1. Read about why Monero and DarkCoin are so popular amongst cybercriminals.
2. Detailed explanation of how does cryptomining work.
3. About unwanted effects for GPUs in the process of cryptomining.
4. Read more about various malware type on GridinSoft Threat Encyclopedia.
5. Our review on GridinSoft Anti-Malware.

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