Posts Tagged ‘Webcam’

Peeping Tom tricked women into taking hacked webcams into shower, claim police

Published by pratyushkp on June 10th, 2011 - in Social, Technology

Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The problem of perverts and cyberstalkers using malware to grab control over female victims’ webcams is one that has been around for quite some time.

Hackers can secretly spy upon people in their bedrooms, and even exploit technology to blackmail young women into posing naked, threatening that they will send other compromising photos to their online friends.

It’s pretty unsavoury stuff, and has probably made some women cautious of handing over their computers to that ever-so-friendly repair man, fearful of what they might install while the computer is in their care.

In the latest case, a 20-year-old man has been arrested for allegedly infecting young women’s Apple Mac computers with spyware that could commandeer their webcam.

Trevor Harwell, of Orange County, California, is said to have rigged the MacBooks with error messages that would increase the chances of him capturing nude pictures and movies of the young women.

You’re probably wondering what kind of error messages would achieve such a result.

"You should fix your internal sensor soon. If unsure what to do, try putting your laptop near hot steam for several minutes to clean the sensor."

According to Fullerton Police Sgt. Andrew Goodrich, the error message tricked many victims into taking laptops into their bathroom while taking a steamy shower.

The sleazy scheme was only brought to light last summer when a mother became suspicious about the unlikely messages appearing on her daughter’s computer.

Hundreds of thousands of surreptitiously taken still images, videos and cellphone videos were seized from Hawell’s computer according to a report in the LA Times.

Anyone woman who believes they might have been a victim is invited to contact Fullerton Det. Kathryn Hamel at (714) 738-5327.

Of course, and perhaps most disturbingly, there was nothing stopping the victim of the alleged surveillance being under-age.

It’s true of people of any age, but young people’s PCs must be properly protected with the latest anti-virus software, security patches and firewalls. It is also essential that young people are taught how to behave safely online, to avoid being exploited by sick-minded hackers.

  • Find out more about how to protect children from online threats at www.getsafeonline.org
  • Find out about the Virtual Global Taskforce – a group of police forces working around the world to fight online child abus

Source :- http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com

  • Peeping Tom tricked women into taking hacked webcams into shower, claim police (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
  • Crooked Technician Hacked Laptops To Become Peeping Tom (escapistmagazine.com)
  • Technician Arrested for Installing Webcam Peeping Software on Women’s PCs (techland.time.com)
  • Cops arrest alleged high-tech peeping Tom (cbsnews.com)
  • Peeping Tom Mac spyware suspect cuffed (go.theregister.com)
  • Police: Computer tech installed peeping software (seattlepi.com)
Tags: , , , , Los Angeles Times, , , Orange County California, , Virtual Global Taskforce,

Free Tube Hub hot sexy girls links spread virally on Facebook

Published by pratyushkp on June 7th, 2011 - in Social, Technology

Image via CrunchBase

Beware the back booty!

There’s a huge trend right now for scams to spread across Facebook, using various alluring topics to get you to click.

Ask yourself this. Would you be in the market for a website which offers daily updated awesome movies of the hottest sexy girls?

If so, you’re a prime candidate to fall for the latest scam spreading rapidly across Facebook using an image of a woman with a large bottom and a minuscule bikini.

Damn, just found new tube site - a lot of awesome movies there!

Free Tube Hub - Your Daily Source of Updated Tube Movies!
[LINK]

Fine tube hub is the awesome collection of best tube videos, free movies and streaming Clips. Our hub brings free full length videos with most hottest sexy girls

Don’t make the mistake of clicking before you think, or you could be helping this one spread across the social network.

This attack is spreading very rapidly right now – so think with your brains, not with the contents of your trousers.

And if you did fall for the attack, make sure to clean it off your wall before you pass it onto your other Facebook friends. Use this as a lesson for the future.

Source :- http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com

Visit the New Facebook? Hacker warning spreads like wildfire on social network

Published by pratyushkp on May 16th, 2011 - in Social, Technology
Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

Facebook users are posting warnings to one another about a hacker operating on the network, using the offer to “Visit the new Facebook” to break into pages and kick out the page’s legitimate administrators.

Unfortunately the alerts do not include enough information to be useful, and members of the public may be unwittingly perpetuating a hoax in the belief that they are helping their friends, family and online chums avoid a nasty virus infection.

Visit the new Facebook warning

THIS NOTICE IS DIRECTED TO EVERYONE WHO HAS A PAGE ON FACEBOOK: IF SOME PEOPLE IN YOUR PROFILE OR YOUR FRIENDS SEND YOU A LINK WITH WORDS "VISIT THE NEW FACEBOOK '' AND THERE IS THE LINK BELOW, DO NOT OPEN! IF YOU OPEN IT YOU CAN SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR PAGE. IT'S A HACKER WHO STEALS YOUR DETAILS AND REMOVES YOU FROM YOUR OWN PAGE. COPY AND SPREAD THE WORD

Although there are many scams and attacks which spread on Facebook every day, no-one appears so far to actually have gathered any evidence that this one exists – and there is probably more nuisance being caused by users passing on the warning than by any attack which may or may not have happened.

Users believe they’re doing the right thing when they share warnings like this – but unfortunately they haven’t always checked their facts.

Please don’t share security warnings with your online friends until you have checked them with a credible source (such as an established computer security company). Threats can be killed off fairly easily, but misinformation like this can live on for months, if not years, because people believe they are “doing the right thing” by sharing the warning with their friends.

If you’re a regular user of Facebook, be sure to join the Sophos page on Facebook to be kept informed of the latest security threats.

Source :- http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com

  • Visit the New Facebook? Hacker warning spreads like wildfire on social network (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
  • Facebook Dislike button spreads fast, but is a fake – watch out! (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
  • Bobby Roberts hacker chain letter spreads quickly on Facebook (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
  • Facebook spam prevention scam spreading like wildfire (go.theregister.com)
  • Dad catches daughters on webcam: Beware viral Facebook video link (pratyushkp.wordpress.com)
  • OMG Look What This Kid Did To His School Facebook Scam Spreading (techie-buzz.com)
  • Spam from your Facebook account? Malware attack poses as official warning (pratyushkp.wordpress.com)
  • Sophos urges Facebook to better protect its users (zdnet.com)
  • Heads up FB friends! New chain letter spreads on Facebook (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
  • Spam from your Facebook account? Malware attack poses as official warning (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)

Dad catches daughters on webcam: Beware viral Facebook video link

Published by pratyushkp on May 15th, 2011 - in Social, Technology
Image representing Facebook as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

Facebook is being hit by another viral message, spreading between users’ walls disguised as a link to a saucy video.

The messages, which are spreading rapidly, use a variety of different links but all claim to be a movie of a dad catching his daughters making a video on their webcam:

Dad catches daughters on webcam message

[VIDEO] DAD CATCHES DAUGHTERS ON WEBCAM [OMGGGG].AVI
[LINK]
two naughty girls get caught in the WORST moment while making a vid on their webcam! omg!!

The messages also tag some of the victims’ Facebook friends, presumably in an attempt to spread the links more quickly across the social network.

If you make the mistake of clicking on the link you are taken to a webpage which shows a video thumbnail of two scantily clad young women on a bed. The page urges you to play the video, however doing so will post the Facebook message on your own wall as a “Like” and pass it to your friends.

Unfortunately, the new security improvements announced by Facebook this week fail to give any protection or warning about the attack.

Dad catches daughters on webcam message

When I tested the scam Sophos was presented with a (fake) message telling me that my Adobe Flash plugin had crashed and  needed to download a codec.

Dad catches daughters on webcam message

Codec downloadUsers should remember that they should only ever download updates to Adobe Flash from Adobe’s own website – not from anywhere else on the internet as you could be tricked into installing malware.

Ultimately, you may find your browser has been redirected to a webpage promoting a tool for changing your Facebook layout, called Profile Stylez and – on Windows at least – may find you have been prompted to install a program called FreeCodec.exe which really installs the Profile Stylez browser extension.

ProfileStylez

It’s certainly disappointing to see Facebook’s new security features fail at the first major outbreak – clearly there’s much more work which needs to be done to prevent these sorts of messages spreading rapidly across the social network, tricking users into clicking on links which could be designed to cause harm.

Source :- http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com

  • Dad catches daughters on webcam: Beware viral Facebook video link (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
  • Facebook Scam Alert: Look what happens when Father catches Daughter on Webcam! (techie-buzz.com)
  • What is FouTube? Viral Facebook clickjacking video scams explored (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
  • ALERT: Avoid ‘Father Catches Daughter On Webcam’ (allfacebook.com)
  • Beware of Fake Osama bin laden links on web! (trak.in)
  • Beware Video Osama Traps on Facebook (socyberty.com)
  • ““Shocking New Video of Osama Bin Laden’s Death†Facebook Spam” and related posts (teck.in)
  • Photo tagged as a Facebook bunnygirl? Beware viral scam (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
  • Osama Bin Laden death video scam spreads virally on Facebook (nakedsecurity.sophos.com)
  • Osama Bin Laden death video scam spreads virally on Facebook (securitybloggersnetwork.com)
Tags: , Adobe Systems, Audio Video Interleave, , , , , , ,
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