Oh my!
Posted on 09/08/2015 11:16:14 AM PDT by Swordmaker
A malicious Android app that held people to ransom has been found by US security firm Zscaler.
Adult Player appeared to offer pornography, but secretly took pictures of users with the phone's front-facing camera.
It then locked the user's device and displayed a demand for $500 (£330) which was difficult to bypass.
One security expert told the BBC that ransomware was a lucrative and growing area of cybercrime.
Ransomware
The Adult Player app demanded a payment of $500 (£330).
Apps which demand money from people with a threat to release private information, or wipe a device, are known as ransomware.
In August, Intel Security said examples of ransomware had increased 127% since 2014 - primarily affecting desktop computers and laptops.
"One of the reasons for the increase is that it's very easy to make," said Raj Samani, chief technology officer for Intel Security in Europe.
"There are people you can pay to do the work for you, and it pays really well. One group we tracked made more than $75,000 in 10 weeks.
"Apps like this rely on the embarrassment factor. If you don't pay, your reputation is on the line."
Adult Player was the second example of pornography-focused ransomware discovered by Zscaler.
The app was not available from vetted storefronts such as Google Play, but could be installed directly from a webpage.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
What you describe is just a tweak on identity theft. Yeah, it does concern me that some schmuck might try to use an altered image of me, which is why I have gone to great lengths to have as few photos as possible out on The Interwebs.
I wonder if Hillary ever got this message from the FBI?
No, Apple iOS is not. Apple will NOT provide access to any government agency, nor are there any backdoors into iOS devices. The data on iOS devices and the data they store on Apple's iCloud is encrypted to a 256 bit AES standard to which the user holds the only key, which itself is entangled with the iOS device's 128 character Universally Unique ID. Even Apple's iMessages are encrypted in transmission which the government is upset they cannot decrypt. The financial industry uses only 128 bit AES encryption to protect their transmissions and financial data.
The only way to break this kind of encryption is brute force. Without the key, which with iOS is held only by the user, it would take 5.62 vigintillion years (yes, that is a number, it is 5.62 X 10195) to try every possible entangled keys, if the user had merely used a 16 character complex password.
Your suggested flip phones are wide open, easily listened in on. The only encryption they provide is that which is approved by the government. That's really secure. . . not. Oh, and you cannot turn the locator off. It's required by law because of the 911 system. Sorry. They are easily tracked within about 30 feet.
A couple of years ago, or so, a Sheriff's department wound up paying the ransom to a hacker group to get their computers unlocked due to having to be able to even use their 911 system!
Another old trick is to toss a tennis shoe in, set it to spin and have a seat.
OH, my? .................... I guess she was looking at Sinatra at the time? You know what he said about her? LOL!
Oh my!
From time to time, I get these email spam links which tell me beautiful Russian women want me. Not so amusing when they never show up! I'm still waiting! Anyway, always cover the camera lens with a sticker/post-it and problem solved. All ours are covered until we need to use them.
It seems so. Annoyingly scary stuff. Too many bad people out there with increasingly easier opportunities to be lazy theives.
NO playing with people you can’t trust not to blackmail you. What, is that everybody? Yeah, I guess so. :-)
A brother-in-law recently called me about this one. Told him it was spam. He brought his computer to me, and I showed him how to clear it as you suggested. Along with the advice to periodically clear history and web data (which can be set automatically to be done at your choice of time interval). It's easier to clean it often and re-enter passwords for websites, as it reinforces your remembering passwords. Unfortunately, my brother-in-law often calls me for his passwords, as he forgets them. When I tell him it's his computer and to remember his passwords, he tells me that's what I'm for!
The way to defeat this is to tell them to go ahead and post the pictures. Who cares?
This only works if you are actually threatened by having naked pictures of yourself out there.
Personally, I don’t care. This is what God gave me....have a nice look.
Such a blackmail scheme does not work on those who are well-grounded.
the biggest reason why Windows phones are more secure than iOS or Android phones is because of the same reason MAC OS is more secure than Windows PCs.....number of users.
Windows Phone has about 5% share. Why write such malware for 5% of the market when you can write it for 40% with iOS or Android?
It is a numbers game.....and there is some security in using a less popular operating system.
Yup...I would never put myself in a position to be photographed in a compromising position...
In the last 35 years only two living things have seen me butt naked
My wife and my dog...
At least the dog didn't start howling ...: )
Don’t worry...you have no reputation.
Eric, the "Security by Obscurity" canard was and is still being shot down for Mac OS X for the same reason. It is NOT obscurity when you look at facts. The Witty Worm was written for fewer than 18,000 still vulnerable Windows PCs after Black Ice patched the vulnerability in its firewall Witty exploited almost a year before Witty was written. The other major thing learned from Witty Worm was that every single one of the vulnerable PCs was infected less than 45 minutes after the worm was released into the wild, no matter where that PC was located in the world. Neither obscurity nor locality offered any protection from a virus or worm written to attack a vulnerable OS.
There are now over 100 million Mac OS X users in the world and 1.2 BILLION iOS devices, yet there are effectively ZERO viruses in the wild for those platforms. On OS X, there are only 57 known Trojan applications in eight identified families, all of which will be identified by OS X itself which will warn the user before download, install, or first run, requiring an administrator name and password before allowing those actions to continue. On iOS they are not allowed at all so they simply do not exist because they are removed from the Apple App store when discovered. The only malware in iOS exists only for Jailbroken iPhones, iPads, and iPods touch devices.
The Hacker Team, the company that sells the tools to break into mobile devices to governments and police agencies around the world, including the NSA, FBI, CIA, MI6, Scotland Yard, etc., recently announced they had tools for all phones and tablets EXCEPT Apple iPhones and iPads, unless they were jailbroken. They said they had been completely unsuccessful in breaking into iOS devices, so were unable to provide agencies with such tools. They COULD break into Android, Windows Phone, including the latest Windows 10 version, Nokia, Symbian, Rim/Blackberry, Samsung Tizen, and jailbroken iOS.
I tell my business clients that I make it a practice to deliberately forget any passwords I either set up for them, or learn in the course of my business with them. Safer that way for them and for me. I will ask them again when I need to get into their computers or networks. . . but please do not rely on me to recall them. I don't write them down, nor will I remember them. I do that for their safety and security. If you don't write them down and put them in a VERY SAFE place, then make them a very easily remembered but complex password they cannot forget. . . and then DO NOT FORGET THEM, because I will not recall what they were.
My ex-wife and daughter changed their passwords on their Mac. . . and cannot recall what they changed them to. . . oops.
I do not want a pass word on my computer, just to turn it on and use it. When I got it and set it up, I could not find an option to not use a pass word. Now I can find no way to delete having to use it.
Ah, nuts. Just as was going to run for Congress.
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