With the series of Ransomware attacks, it is important to protect ourselves both Physically and "Cyberly"

There's a new attack in the Cyber world. Be careful what application you install, and what permission you grant each application.

Read below, please. I have also highlighted some important text in bold.
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After WannaCry and Petya ransomware outbreaks, a scary (but rather creative) new strain of ransomware is spreading via bogus apps on the Google Play Store, this time targeting Android mobile users.

Dubbed LeakerLocker, the Android ransomware does not encrypt files on victim's device, unlike traditional ransomware, rather it secretly collects personal images, messages and browsing history and threatens to share it to their contacts if they don't pay $50 (£38).

Researchers at security firm McAfee spotted the LeakerLocker ransomware in at least two apps — Booster & Cleaner Pro and Wallpapers Blur HD — in the Google Play Store, both of which have thousands of downloads.

To evade detection of malicious functionality, the apps initially don’t contain any malicious payload and typical function like legitimate apps.



But once installed by users, the apps load malicious code from its command-and-control server, which instructs them to collect a vast number of sensitive data from the victim's phone — thanks to its victims granting unnecessary permissions blindly during installation.

The LeakerLocker ransomware then locks the home screen and displays a message that contains details of the data it claims to have stolen and holds instructions on how to pay the ransom to ensure the information is deleted.

The ransom message reads:
All personal data from your smartphone has been transferred to our secure cloud.


In less than 72 hours this data will be sent to every person on your telephone and email contacts list. To abort this action you have to pay a modest ransom of $50 (£38).


Please note that there is no way to delete your data from our secure but paying for them. Powering off or even damaging your smartphone won't affect your data in the cloud.

Although the ransomware claims that it has taken a backup of all of your sensitive information, including personal photos, contact numbers, SMS', calls and GPS locations and browsing and correspondence history, researchers believe only a limited amount of data on victims is collected.



According to researchers, LeakerLocker can read a victim's email address, random contacts, Chrome history, some text messages and calls, take a picture from the camera, and read some device information.


All the above information is randomly chosen to display on the device screen, which is enough to convince the victims that lots of data have been copied.

Both malicious apps have since been removed by Google from the Play Store, but it is likely that hackers will try to smuggle their software into other apps.

If you have installed any of the two apps, uninstall it right now.

But if you are hit by the ransomware and are worried about your sexy selfies and photographs being leaked to your friends and relatives, you might be thinking of paying a ransom.

Do not pay the Ransom! Doing so motivates cyber criminals to carry out similar attacks, and there is also no guarantee that the stolen information will be deleted by the hackers from their server and will not be used to blackmail victims again.

http://thehackernews.com/2017/07/leakerlocker-android-ransomware.html?
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Lalasticlala Mynd44 Skydancer I know this is not a snake thread or cat head thread but we need to spread this.
Let's create Ransomware Awareness!

It is those that have something to hide that will be afraid of such threats, especially those with nude pictures, politicians, especially Nigeria's, and armed robbers!

But they should know they are also humans that can fall into another's trap!

Every day for the thief, the one day that belongs to the owner's action can cause a swimming pool to swallow the atlantic ocean water! They should continue!!!

luckyz4rea:
It is those that have something to hide that will be afraid of such threats, especially those with nude pictures, politicians, especially Nigeria's, and armed robbers!

But they should know they are also humans that can fall into another's trap!

Every day for the thief, the one day that belongs to the owner's action can cause a swimming pool to swallow the atlantic ocean water! They should continue!!!

I kinda agree with you. But permit me to counter this a bit.
Personally, I believe everyone should be worried about this and not necessarily afraid. I dont have nudes, but does this means I shouldn't be concerned about my privacy? I believe everyone should be worried about their privacy.
These black hat hackers are not so dumb, to just wanna encrypt or steal your pictures or files for no reason. It's just one of the many things they can do.

For example, take a look at the recent attack on Bell Canada, where about 1.9 Million Bell Customer's email addresses were stolen by an anonymous hacker. And after that, you could hear some people saying, "Oh well, it's just emails and numbers stolen, not money, not credit card information so no biggie"

And it's funny because these hackers are not so less busy to go about stealing emails and numbers without aims. This two information alone is enough to impersonate you on an online shopping platform. This is just an example. Need I go into more details how these "ordinary" emails and contact numbers can cause a lot of troubles for users.

So when we advise each other to be worried about the least important/private thing in our life, it's because of series of coordinated attacks such as this.

Right now, there are hackers working on a series of coordinated attacks to take down the entire internet. With everything on the cloud these days, this is pretty easy and faster.
Security begins with each individual!

Need I say more!

VickyRotex:


I kinda agree with you. But permit me to counter this a bit.
Personally, I believe everyone should be worried about this and not necessarily afraid. I dont have nudes, but does this means I shouldn't be concerned about my privacy? I believe everyone should be worried about their privacy.
These black hat hackers are not so dumb, to just wanna encrypt or steal your pictures or files for no reason. It's just one of the many things they can do.

For example, take a look at the recent attack on Bell Canada, where about 1.9 Million Bell Customer's email addresses were stolen by an anonymous hacker. And after that, you could hear some people saying, "Oh well, it's just emails and numbers stolen, not money, not credit card information so no biggie"

And it's funny because these hackers are not so less busy to go about stealing emails and numbers without aims. This two information alone is enough to impersonate you on an online shopping platform. This is just an example. Need I go into more details how these "ordinary" emails and contact numbers can cause a lot of troubles for users.

So when we advise each other to be worried about the least important/private thing in our life, it's because of series of coordinated attacks such as this.

Right now, there are hackers working on a series of coordinated attacks to take down the entire internet. With everything on the cloud these days, this is pretty easy and faster.
Security begins with each individual!

Need I say more!

Your perspective is valid! Thank you!

You Are Right

VickyRotex:


I kinda agree with you. But permit me to counter this a bit.
Personally, I believe everyone should be worried about this and not necessarily afraid. I dont have nudes, but does this means I shouldn't be concerned about my privacy? I believe everyone should be worried about their privacy.
These black hat hackers are not so dumb, to just wanna encrypt or steal your pictures or files for no reason. It's just one of the many things they can do.

For example, take a look at the recent attack on Bell Canada, where about 1.9 Million Bell Customer's email addresses were stolen by an anonymous hacker. And after that, you could hear some people saying, "Oh well, it's just emails and numbers stolen, not money, not credit card information so no biggie"

And it's funny because these hackers are not so less busy to go about stealing emails and numbers without aims. This two information alone is enough to impersonate you on an online shopping platform. This is just an example. Need I go into more details how these "ordinary" emails and contact numbers can cause a lot of troubles for users.

So when we advise each other to be worried about the least important/private thing in our life, it's because of series of coordinated attacks such as this.

Right now, there are hackers working on a series of coordinated attacks to take down the entire internet. With everything on the cloud these days, this is pretty easy and faster.
Security begins with each individual!

Need I say more!

A lot has to be said for anarchist bent of 1st world kids that allows their society to conveniently breed sociopaths, psychopaths and other such fringe dikcheads as the type that think the next step forward is to down the internet, aid WWIII from the safety of offshore bunkers and generally run around with Kingsized egos and sense of entitlement. Dem nor try at all. It's crazy, really!

The whole hackers-leaking-innocent-users'-data charade is getting annoying and more pointless. It would've have made more sense if the hackers faced-down governments and world geopolitical industrial complexes like the Echelon Project etc. It would have made better sense if hackers united and made their presence felt on helping the people gain back much needed privacy rights via government corporate exposes but no! They opt instead to afflict the common man in a classic Robin Hoodian' antithetical crusade. It's just so stupid of them.

And I thought Android 7 was supposed to take care of the problem of Apps seeking totalitarian permission without users having no volitional powers to edit permissions or deny access at installation point? Modding' is always the way to go, modding is the way out of all these bullshyts!

IdeyFindWife:


A lot has to be said for anarchist bent of 1st world kids that allows their society to conveniently breed sociopaths, psychopaths and other such fringe dikcheads as the type that think the next step forward is to down the internet, aid WWIII from the safety of offshore bunkers and generally run around with Kingsized egos and sense of entitlement. Dem nor try at all. It's crazy, really!

The whole hackers-leaking-innocent-users'-data charade is getting annoying and more pointless. It would've have made more sense if the hackers faced-down governments and world geopolitical industrial complexes like the Echelon Project etc. It would have made better sense if hackers united and made their presence felt on helping the people gain back much needed privacy rights via government corporate exposes but no! They opt instead to afflict the common man in a classic Robin Hoodian' antithetical crusade. It's just so stupid of them.

And I thought Android 7 was supposed to take care of the problem of Apps seeking totalitarian permission without users having no volitional powers to edit permissions or deny access at installation point? Modding' is always the way to go, modding is the way out of all these bullshyts!

Honestly, I couldnt have said it any better myself. I agree with you.
The Cyber world is getting crazy day by day.

It wasnt this bad growing up.

That's what is tiring. They do this for their own selfish gain. Causing pain for innocent Citizens .

@Highlighted, exactly my point. As in, one would think they'd use it to free the world from the illegal acts of the government, (by subjecting people's privacy and having more than they should have about each individual.) That's one thing Wikileaks does. (Revealing the plots of these Security agencies against Citizens Privacy)
Even though it's responsible for one of the problems we have in the Cyberworld today. That's why it's so easy for anyone to be an hacker, cos those exploits are dumped on the internet. Thanks, but no Thanks to Wikileaks and a couple of others.

The irony of it all is that, most of these vulnerabilities exploited by these hackers are gotten from the various Security agency leaks. Like the CIA leaks and all.

Look at the recent ransomware attack (Wannacry) even though it was a Microsoft SMB Protocol Vulnerabilty that was exploited, it was also linked to the leaked NSA Malware and Cyber trick that Wiki leaks revealed recently.

So imagine when we say, the Global world (Internet) may be taken down by some bunch of black hat guys, they just may be using the Goverment tools against its Citizens. How sad!

As per Mobile Security, trust me there's still a long way to go in ensuring Compliance and Permissions granted. Especially Android. Playstore has become a dumpsite for amateur and insecure apps.

VickyRotex:


Honestly, I couldnt have said it any better myself. I agree with you.
The Cyber world is getting crazy day by day.

It wasnt this bad growing up.

That's what is tiring. They do this for their own selfish gain. Causing pain for innocent Citizens .

@Highlighted, exactly my point. As in, one would think they'd use it to free the world from the illegal acts of the government, (by subjecting people's privacy and having more than they should have about each individual.) That's one thing Wikileaks does. (Revealing the plots of these Security agencies against Citizens Privacy)
Even though it's responsible for one of the problems we have in the Cyberworld today. That's why it's so easy for anyone to be an hacker, cos those exploits are dumped on the internet. Thanks, but no Thanks to Wikileaks and a couple of others.

The irony of it all is that, most of these vulnerabilities exploited by these hackers are gotten from the various Security agency leaks. Like the CIA leaks and all.

Look at the recent ransomware attack (Wannacry) even though it was a Microsoft SMB Protocol Vulnerabilty that was exploited, it was also linked to the leaked NSA Malware and Cyber trick that Wiki leaks revealed recently.

So imagine when we say, the Global world (Internet) may be taken down by some bunch of black hat guys, they just may be using the Goverment tools against its Citizens. How sad!

As per Mobile Security, trust me there's still a long way to go in ensuring Compliance and Permissions granted. Especially Android. Playstore has become a dumpsite for amateur and insecure apps.

I won't lie. From my days as a conspiracy theories fan, i'd hoped for knight-in-shining armor non-conformists who would mess up and totally take down whatever the one-world order globalists were up to while the whole world wises up to their tricks and peace ensues but now i know the highest probability is the Daniel/Ezekiel/Revelations Books version of how the cookie crumbles that may play out.

These Black Hat guys'll never be the saviors of the free world infact most of them are part of the problem now and i'm certain they'll just be as caught-off-guard as everyone else when the storm hits.

IdeyFindWife:


I won't lie. From my days as a conspiracy theories fan, i'd hoped for knight-in-shining armor non-conformists who would mess up and totally take down whatever the one-world order globalists were up to while the whole world wises up to their tricks and peace ensues but now i know the highest probability is the Daniel/Ezekiel/Revelations Books version of how the cookie crumbles that may play out.

These Black Hat guys'll never be the saviors of the free world infact most of them are part of the problem now and i'm certain they'll just be as caught-off-guard as everyone else when the storm hits.

Hahahahaha lol. Interesting!

Yea right! Even the government will be caught off guard. As I perceive, there'd probably be rogue agents acting against each other.