I'm trying to figure out how to detect any malicious crypto mining apps that might be running on my PC. I've noticed that many of these apps can be sneaky by closing themselves or hiding their presence by only using a minimal amount of resources when checking the task manager. Recently, I installed Omen Gaming Hub to optimize my old HP laptop and found a suspicious application called pigysuender.exe that's using 30% of my CPU, even when only Notepad is open. It disappears from the Omen Gaming Hub when I'm monitoring, but comes back after a few minutes, especially during heavy usage like gaming. Has anyone else experienced this or have tips on how to identify these kinds of threats?
2 Answers
If you're really worried about malware, the best course of action would be to wipe your drive and do a fresh install of Windows. That said, 30% CPU usage on an older laptop while not doing too much doesn't sound overly alarming. You could also just make sure your Windows is up to date and run a scan with Windows Defender to keep it in check.
It sounds like you're overthinking this a bit! Just to clarify, could there be a typo in the app name? If it's supposed to be 'pingsender.exe', that's a part of Firefox. No need to freak out yet!
I don't even have Firefox installed, which makes it even more suspicious to me.
I've already reset and reinstalled Windows 11, so I'll keep an eye on things for now!