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Political Fact-Checking Site Hacked to Mine Cryptocurrency

PolitiFact briefly hogged the CPU resources of any user who visited the site on Friday.

Michael Kan
 & Michael Kan Principal Reporter

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A fact-checking website was hacked to mine cryptocurrency over the internet browsers of its unsuspecting visitors.

The Pulitzer Prize-winning website, PolitiFact, is devoted to sorting out the truth in US politics. But on Friday, it was found secretly hogging the computer resources of those who visited the site.

Independent security researcher Troy Mursch tweeted about the issue after noticing signs of a cryptocurrency miner in the website's code.

The miner works as piece of Javascript code that can be embedded in a website, which will then use a visitor's CPU resources to mine the digital currency Monero.

PCMag visited the PolitiFact site on Friday, and noticed CPU system usage would shoot up to over 90 percent.

PolitiFact said in an email: "We identified and removed the source of the problem. We are reviewing how malicious code got on the site and taking necessary steps to secure the site from future bad actors."

Mursch said the code comes from a company called Coinhive, which developed a controversial cryptocurrency miner to help businesses find a new way to generate online revenue.

However, the Coinhive miner tends to be used in sketchy websites that pirate content or offer porn, according to AdGuard, an ad-blocking service. These sites often struggle to make money from online advertising, so they have to experiment with new ways to make money.

AdGuard found 220 websites using a cryptocurrency mining code in a study it released on Thursday.

The Pirate Bay, a popular website affiliated with online piracy, is the site best known for using the controversial miner. Last month it began secretly testing the code on certain web pages, but without users' knowledge. This has prompted some debate over whether cryptocurrency miners are a form of malware or a legitimate revenue-making tool. Coinhive itself has said websites should integrate the miner in a more "honest" manner to users.

Who might have hacked PolitiFact isn't clear. But the site quickly removed the miner after realizing the problem. By Friday afternoon, it no longer was hogging CPU resources. The hack probably occured in the last two days. Mursch tweeted that an archived copy of the PolitiFact site made on Wednesday did not contain the Coinhive miner code.

About Our Expert

Michael Kan

Michael Kan

Principal Reporter

My Experience

I've been a journalist for over 15 years. I got my start as a schools and cities reporter in Kansas City and joined PCMag in 2017, where I cover satellite internet services, cybersecurity, PC hardware, and more. I'm currently based in San Francisco, but previously spent over five years in China, covering the country's technology sector.

Since 2020, I've covered the launch and explosive growth of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service, writing 600+ stories on availability and feature launches, but also the regulatory battles over the expansion of satellite constellations, fights with rival providers like AST SpaceMobile and Amazon, and the effort to expand into satellite-based mobile service. I've combed through FCC filings for the latest news and driven to remote corners of California to test Starlink's cellular service.

I also cover cyber threats, from ransomware gangs to the emergence of AI-based malware. In 2024 and 2025, the FTC forced Avast to pay consumers $16.5 million for secretly harvesting and selling their personal information to third-party clients, as revealed in my joint investigation with Motherboard.

I also cover the PC graphics card market. Pandemic-era shortages led me to camp out in front of a Best Buy to get an RTX 3000. I'm now following how the AI-driven memory shortage is impacting the entire consumer electronics market. I'm always eager to learn more, so please jump in the comments with feedback and send me tips.

The Best Tech I've Had:

  • My first video game console: a Nintendo Famicom
  • I loved my Sega Saturn despite PlayStation's popularity.
  • The iPod Video I received as a gift in college
  • Xbox 360 FTW
  • The Galaxy Nexus was the first smartphone I was proud to own.
  • The PC desktop I built in 2013, which still works to this day.

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