Yesterday I was pursuing through my email and saw something stuck in my spam filter. I thought maybe it was a false positive so I looked. What I found was an email that would make the average unknowing person cringe and part with their money quickly. What I got was an extortion email from a supposed hacker. Apparently he has been watching me for months and installed a virus on my system, he saw me on an adult site and captured a video of me bopping my bologna to an adult video. If I don’t part with some money and send him x amount of bit coin he is going to release the video to all of my contacts. If I tell anyone about the email that will trigger an immediate release of said video.
I deal with bullshit like this all day long, it’s what I do for a living and I know this is a complete bluff. First of all I don’t have a web cam so no one has “video” of me. Second I don’t use the contacts feature associated with the email address that reached me. Third that email account doesn’t actually exist in physical form, meaning there is no mailbox it’s a forwarding address. Fourth most everyone that I care about already knows I’m gay. Fifth I don’t try to hide the fact I watch porn and well I am not eating a bowl of popcorn while I am watching. I’m busy with the aforementioned bologna. Sixth the email address that I received this threat on isn’t an address that I have published or disclosed to anyone at anytime under any circumstances. So there you have it and no I am not paying up. This type of email is common and it’s the shame factor that will motivate most people. I won’t say everyone but a good majority of people watch porn and like me they aren’t eating popcorn. Humiliation coupled with extortion is pretty powerful.
I heard about this scam earlier this year and it actually reached someone that I work with. They actually sent him his password in an email. That is of concern but the best thing you can do is change your password right away. If you don’t have good cyber hygiene and use the same password for everything well then you have a lot of work to do.
What are the takeaways from this?
1. Don’t do anything in front of a web cam that would embarrass you.
2. If you have a web cam assume it’s on all the time, even if the light isn’t on. Most have microphones so be careful of what you say. If your camera is external, consider unplugging it unless you need to use it. If it’s built into a laptop use a piece of black tape or a post it to cover the lens.
3. Make sure you change your passwords on a regular basis and use a password keeper like LastPass One Pass, KeyPass or something similar. Most of these programs will generate and store secure random passwords for you. This way you only need to remember a single password. If the program you choose offers MFA (Multi-Factor Authentication) and/or 2FA (Two Factor Authentication) which are the same thing, enable it for an extra layer of security.
4. Never ever pay ransom or extortion money of any kind. If you think the threat is real consider involving law enforcement, even if your told not to.
5. Consider archiving your email so if someone does compromise your account they can’t gain any inside information by reading through your email. If you don’t want to archive then at the very least encrypt your mail so it requires a password to decrypt.
6. Don’t store your contacts information in your email. Either use a password manager for that or setup a dummy account and only use the address book feature. Unless your email account offers MFA or 2FA.
7. There is no way someone can place a virus on a computer and have it never, ever detected by an anti-virus program. Sure traditional AV programs that depend upon definitions or updates can be behind but that’s why you should either layer your protection or go with a next gen AV provider that looks at behavior patterns so they actually detect something that may not yet have a definition but the behavior is malicious or suspicious. Better safe than sorry!
It’s kind of sad that we all have to watch every move we make. I’m not saying live in fear but rather just live but take precautions. It’s like P.T. Barnum said there is a sucker born every minute go get their money. People won’t ever stop thinking up cons, scams or schemes in which to separate you from your money. Be careful. Most of what I have placed in this article is common cyber security knowledge but my aim isn’t to be redundant but rather to educate you so you can protect yourself.
This is no different than other schemes where someone calls pretending to be tech support, Microsoft, Apple or who ever saying you have a virus or there has been fraud on your account and it’s caused by your computer. Hang up on those people they are true hackers and are up to no good.
I am not looking to push software or programs on anyone, I’m not getting compensated by anyone, my true sole purpose here is educational awareness. I hope I’ve helped you!
No comments:
Post a Comment