Posted on January 3, 2020 at 6:45 PM
Hackers may have Found a Way to Record People Watching Porn
Hackers’ activities have perpetrated almost all industries and spheres of life, as they now claim they can hack into people’s webcam and video them directly. The hackers are claiming that they can video those watching porn, use the video to blackmail them. They do this using a phishing malware known as PsiXBot.
The malware is usually present and active in Windows Computer. When it attaches itself into the webcam or camera, it can record video and transmit it to a server. Currently, such malware has infiltrated several computers all over the world.
When the hackers get in control of the video, they blackmail the victims, asking different ransom denominations in exchange for the video. They will threaten to send the video to the families of the victims if they refuse to give in to their blackmail.
Empty Threats of substance in threat
This is one of the oldest forms of hacking claim, where the hacker tells the victim that certain personal information about them has been stolen by watching them. They would now ask for a ransom to retrieve the stolen information. However, many of these hacking threats are not real. There are merely empty threats.
But, some cybersecurity experts have said the technology to hack into people’s webcam exists. Proofpoint security experts recently discovered malicious software that hackers use to take videos of unsuspicious victims watching porn. According to the reports, the hackers usually record these videos from the webcams of the victims without any knowledge they are being filmed.
The Proofpoint security experts also said after recording the videos, the hackers proceed with their blackmail, in an attempt to extort money from the victims. The hackers demand that the victims send the money in the form of Bitcoin, which would not be traceable back to them.
Proofpoint also said the hackers could threaten to send the information about the victim’s visit on the porn site, including everything they typed and the kinds of websites they visited.
The email usually has a subject line describing what they recorded about the victim.
Sextortion an old form of hacking
“Sextortion” is a form of blackmail that has been around for a while. It involves threatening people with a recorded video of them watching porn. A computer security expert at Sophos, Paul Ducklin, said people have been threatening with empty pieces of evidence in the past. But right now, hackers can obtain such information through the user webcam.
Mr Ducklin said people usually see these things in their mailbox, but they are all empty threats. Sometimes the hackers can tell the user some of their private information, but they may not have access to what they claim.
However, some hackers have succeeded in gaining access to the camera section of the computer. According to Ducklin, users that receive sextortion email should perform a complete scan of their system, which may take them some hours depending on their system’s hard drive.
But a virus scan does not always detect the malicious software, Ducklin said. This is because the malware is software, which makes it more difficult to spot. The malware program running the attack is always very difficult to spot because of its hidden nature. So, in some cases, the victim may detect the software while it may not be possible in some other cases.
Security experts assure victims
Lawrence Abrams from Bleeping Computers has assured those that receive such emails that there is nothing to fear. Those that receive the email should not send Bitcoin to the address provided. Instead, they should send the email to their spam folder to enable filters to understand more about the malware.
According to him, these threats should not bother the victims. Instead, they should help security experts by sending the mail to the trash location it belongs. This, according to him, would help experts learn about the malware and discover how to prevent future attacks.
