New Ransomware Targets Porn Pirates, Makes Copyright Threats
from the hey-that's-a-good-idea dept
Ransomware viruses that hijack a a user's computer and demand payment for snake-oil anti-virus software are nothing new, but there's a new twist on it in Japan. A new virus targets people downloading hentai (an explicit form of anime cartoons) from P2P networks, and poses as an installation screen for a game that asks for users' personal info. Once this is entered, it starts taking screengrabs of users' web activity, which it posts online under their name, and asks for payment of 1500 yen (about $16) to "settle your violation of copyright law" and take down the page. There's a similar scam running in Europe, says a security firm, in which a virus scans a computer's hard drive, and regardless of what it finds, demands payment of $400 for a "pretrial settlement" of copyright infringement claims. Essentially these scams are just online versions of what firms like Digiprotect, ACS:Law and Davenport Lyons do through the mail -- send out thousands of letters demanding people pay up for supposedly downloading copyrighted content. That scheme (which manages to ensnare plenty of innocent users) is quite profitable for the firms that run it -- so it shouldn't be too surprising to see malware scammers move in. It's an interesting question, though: really, what's the fundamental difference between what the malware peddlers and these supposedly legitimate companies are doing?
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Filed Under: copyright, porn, ransomware
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I am now defining a Japanese corolary to the "Dancing Pigs" problem called the "Dancing Tentacle Monster" problem.
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It is still extortion, but I think it's safe to say that no grandmas or printers will be downloading and installing a trojan that they thought was "Doki Doki no Tentacle Lovu~".
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What a good idea
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There is a difference
The malware peddlers are a lot smarter, they get the victims to do all the work, so they are much more efficient.
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I heard he took a week off to go to Discuss The Article Or Shut The Fuck Up Island....
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Extortion isn't fraud :-D
Extortion isn't fraud :-D
If I tell you to do it or else, :-D
you don't have to listen :-D
But if I take your CC info and :-D
sell it you'll be hurtin' :-D
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Who wasn't made smart by God,
She acted like a tard,
By not thinking too hard,
And believed that extortion was fraud!
(I swear, this rhymes if you have a Chicago accent....)
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Not necessarily true. They are under no obligation to tell anyone why they "suspect" your infringement. By some of the letters that have gone out to people that could not have POSSIBLY infringed, they are essentially picking up people's names and accusing them with no evidence.
Sounds like the same thing to me.
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Remember, copyright here is just a smokescreen. It could have easily been "Your computer is infected" or a keylogger.
The pre-litigation folks are crooks, to be sure, but once you pay up on their racket, then you are paid (for the time-being). With the malware folks, even if you pay, your CC information is still going to be stolen.
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I say "average pirate" because I feel the vast majority are just regular folks, the kind that don't know much about the inner workings of computers and all the different kinds of social engineering malware authors use. You know, the kind that are happy when their computer works correctly but need someone else to fix it when it doesn't. They simply like getting things for free that just work out of the box (so to speak).
I think only a small percentage of pirates have actually done their homework, keep up to date, and are mistrustful of absolutely everything/everyone. You know, the kind that employ and regularly maintain a myriad of security tools on their PC, knowing what each does and how each works.
What amazes me is how long it took for malware authors to finally take advantage of this idea. I thought of it on day one, when the very first settlement letters started going out to alleged copyright infringers. I expected something like this to happen a lot sooner, when people were a little less knowledgeable about settlements and thus far more likely to be taken for a ride.
It will be interesting to watch how this affects the so called "legitimate" law firms and their settlement schemes, the primary reason I got interested by such an idea in the first place.
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