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| Porn Users Forum » Welcome to the world of cyber crime, where even dummies can make profit (illegal?). |
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| 08-16-16 08:30am - 3012 days | Original Post - #1 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User  Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Welcome to the world of cyber crime, where even dummies can make profit (illegal?). Welcome to the world of cyber crime, where even dummies can make profit (illegal?). I found this article on computer crime fascinating. I knew that hackers can sometimes make a lot of money. But here is an article showing how anyone can become a hacker, even the computer illiterate. I've been using a computer for many years, but I'm still computer illiterate, as far as knowing how to effectively protect myself against viruses, spyware, etc. But there's still hope for me, with friendly and unfriendly hackers willing to share their programs for a fee. http://www.zdnet.com/article/ransomware-...84754384421679931766 Ransomware-as-a-service allows wannabe hackers to cash-in on cyber extortion Authors of the Cerber ransomware are selling their ransomware as-a-service for a 40 percent cut of their customers' ill-gotten gains. Danny Palmer By Danny Palmer | August 16, 2016 -- 13:02 GMT (06:02 PDT) | Topic: Security The Cerber affiliate scheme allows anyone to become a cyber extortionist -- for a price. A ransomware-as-as-service scheme is enabling even the most technically illiterate cybercriminal to extort payments from victims infected with data-encrypting malware -- with the developers of the service taking a significant chunk of the ill-gotten gains. Cerber is one of the largest active ransomware rings operating today, with data collected by cybersecurity researchers at Check Point claiming 150,000 Microsoft Windows users were infected in July alone. One of the key reasons it's so widespread is because its original creators are selling Cerber on the dark web, allowing other criminals to use the code in return for receiving 40 percent of each ransom paid. With an average ransom payment of one Bitcoin, overall profit from Cerber during July is thought to be around $195,000, with the authors receiving around $78,000 in that month alone. In exchange for giving up some of the profits, wannabe cyber fraudsters are provided with everything they need in order to successfully make money through extortion of victims of the malware -- it's essentially "ransomware for dummies" in an all-in-one kit, says Maya Horowitz, group manager of intelligence operations at Check Point. "Our assumption is the affiliates wouldn't be able to create their own ransomware or malware, so they'd be willing to pay as much as the creator wants because, to them, it's either that or nothing. They get a very user-friendly panel to manage the Cerber ransomware campaign, detailing how many infections there are on a daily basis, how many people pay, the income they're generating. It's very much ransomware for dummies." she told ZDNet. The availability of Cerber to anyone who wants to pay for it differentiates it from another of the most successful ransomware families, Locky. "Locky is only being sent by one threat actor -- they use it on their own and don't share or sell it. Cerber acts as ransomware-as-a-service -- those who created it are now leasing it for anyone to use," says Horowitz. That arguably makes Cerber more dangerous than Locky because each affiliate user can infect victims using a variety of different attack methods, although the two most common involve the victim unknowingly executing a malicious program disguised as a legitimate file, delivered in a phishing email, or the victim is infected browsing a compromised website. Why Investing Only in "What You Know" Could Be a Mistake The temptation to focus your investments on companies or products that you already know and like is understandable. But does it make sense? Sponsored by Charles Schwab Researchers believe there are currently over 150 active Cerber campaigns targeting users in 201 countries, with victims in South Korea, the US, and Taiwan accounting for over half of ransom payments. Perhaps significantly, however, Cerber doesn't infect targets in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Russia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, or Uzbekistan. They're all former Soviet states, suggesting that Cerber is potentially developed in Russia. "It's pretty much everywhere except for Russian-speaking countries. Encoded in the ransomware is an instruction that if it finds a machine configured for Russian language, then it will not run. That makes us assume the writers are of Russian origin," says Horowitz. While the malware authors could just sit back and wait for the profits to roll in -- the original Cerber was spotted early this year -- they're craftier than that. Indeed, researchers discovered that a new version of the ransomware, Cerber 2, was released in July, advertising improvements to the malware. Affiliates are encouraged to become part of the Cerber programme via banners and marketing on dark web forums, with claims that up to three percent of victims will pay the ransom. In reality, Check Point says only 0.3 percent of victims pay the ransom to regain access to their files. While that number seems low, the sheer amount of Cerber infections means its creators are thought to make almost $1m a year using the affiliate scheme alone. The money made is effectively laundered by passing it through a maze of Bitcoin accounts in order to evade detection. In order to combat Cerber, Check Point has released a free Cerber decryption tool, allowing victims to decrypt their locked files without being forced to pay a ransom. | |
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| 08-16-16 08:35am - 3012 days | #2 | |
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merc77 (0)
Disabled User Posts: 291 Registered: Apr 17, '16 |
You do realize cyber crime is a FEDERAL offense? I have been a victim of identity theft and it is no picnic trying to clear up that mess. "Dogs think people are Gods. Cats don't as they know better." - Kedi (2016) Dogs have masters; Cats have staff. | |
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| 08-16-16 08:52am - 3012 days | #3 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I don't know if this fits the definition of identity theft, but I have been victimized numerous times where different credit card accounts in my name were used/attempted-to-use to fraudulently pay for purchases. I'm sure that is a FEDERAL offense. So it is very common for FEDERAL offenses to be committed. No big thing. It's not rare. It's a common, everyday thing. You (merc77) might have had a bad experience with identity theft. I don't know if people using my credit card accounts for fraud is identity theft. But it does qualify for theft. And it happens a lot. As for the article, I thought it was humorous and ingenious the way criminals are expanding the programs to rip off other people. And frightening, as well. As a side note, none of the attempts to use my credit card accounts actually used my valid credit card. Either the crooks used a fake credit card, or they just used the account number, without having to present a physical credit card. In other words, I never lost a credit card, and it was then used for fraud. The criminals/crooks/whatever-you-want-to-call-them got my account numbers somehow, and used them. | |
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| 08-16-16 09:13am - 3012 days | #4 | |
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merc77 (0)
Disabled User Posts: 291 Registered: Apr 17, '16 |
That is identity theft. Any use of an account or one's name or information for any financial or other gain is identity theft. (Most identity theft is done by a relative or known individual.) As for me, I had my name used for a utility account which charged more than $1000. I have had a devil of a time trying to fix that so I won't have to pay it. I would think the utility has the sense to cut off an account after six months pass with no bill being paid. They kept it going for two years! "Dogs think people are Gods. Cats don't as they know better." - Kedi (2016) Dogs have masters; Cats have staff. | |
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| 08-16-16 10:13am - 3012 days | #5 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
merc77, You need to switch to my location. I was late paying my water bill one month. The first time I was late, in over 20 years of service. I had a notice left on my front door, that threatened to cut off my water. I think the total bill was around $20. The notice stated that if I did not pay the overdue bill immediately: My water would be cut off. To resume service, I would have to pay a re-connect fee (if my water was cut off). To resume service, I would have to pay a deposit on the water service. There was a late fee charge on the account, of a few dollars, because I hadn't paid on time. Over twenty years of paying on time, and they were treating me like a vagrant who couldn't be trusted. | |
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| 08-16-16 11:47am - 3012 days | #6 | |
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merc77 (0)
Disabled User Posts: 291 Registered: Apr 17, '16 |
The crooks somehow managed to get ahold of my Social Security number and used it to open an account. I guess that is why I get a little upset over this sort of thing. It happens to other people and they have had to do similar jumps through hoops to clear their names. As for your experience with your water utility, that is a shame. They really need to treat long term customers better than that. I have heard of getting late notices but threatening to cut off the water after one missed payment is too much. Does your state have a utility board to make a complaint with? "Dogs think people are Gods. Cats don't as they know better." - Kedi (2016) Dogs have masters; Cats have staff. | |
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| 08-16-16 12:04pm - 3012 days | #7 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
I live in Los Angeles county (California), so we have a utility board. But I've never contacted them. I believe my water supplier is privately owned. But they are regulated by a public commission. There is a water shortage in California. So the state passed laws requiring us to reduce our water usage. Fine. Recently, they relaxed the conservation requirements. But the local water supplier has requested a rate increase, because they made less money because their customers used less water. Wonderful. You are required by law to use less water. Then the water company wants to increase your rates, because they are making less money.  True story. | |
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| 08-17-16 02:01pm - 3011 days | #8 | |
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merc77 (0)
Disabled User Posts: 291 Registered: Apr 17, '16 |
They need to nationalize utilities. Period. (and yes, the government can nationalize any company they want to.) "Dogs think people are Gods. Cats don't as they know better." - Kedi (2016) Dogs have masters; Cats have staff. | |
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| 08-19-16 08:14pm - 3008 days | #9 | |
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malikstarks (0)
Active User Posts: 108 Registered: Nov 19, '07 Location: Florida |
I remember getting hit up by ransomware a few years back. I didn't pay the ransom (I ended up using a tool called Norton Power Eraser to get rid of the virus) but I ended up losing all of my text based and picture files (videos were fine). I've never been a victim of ID theft luckily. I have recently been paying about 9 bucks a month for Lifelock for what it's worth. | |
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| 08-20-16 01:37am - 3008 days | #10 | |
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lk2fireone (0)
Active User Posts: 3,618 Registered: Nov 14, '08 Location: CA |
Computer can be wonderful. But they can also cause a lot of damage. I remember years ago, I was a member of some site. I don't remember what it was, or what the site did. But a couple of times, the site sent me some text messages, that appeared on my desktop. I had not approved or agreed consciously to let the site control my computer. There are valid programs, or times, when you are connected to some service, and you do agree to let the service control your computer, usually to fix some computer problem. But this was different. I was just a member of some site. And as far as I knew, I had never agreed to let the site take control of my computer. When I saw the first text message on my computer desktop from the site, I was amazed and frightened, because it came out of the blue. I had not expected someone to use my computer that way, or to have the power to do so. I sincerely believe that hackers can access most computers, and gain whatever information is on those computers. When you read about cybercrime, you can read stories where hackers have put their malware on hard disk drives and other computer hardware at the manufacturing level, before you ever buy your computer or the hardware. | |
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| 08-20-16 06:48am - 3008 days | #11 | |
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mbaya (0)
Suspended  Posts: 891 Registered: Jul 07, '08 Location: new jersey |
I have been hit with ransomware and got rid of it by using CCleaner. | |
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| 10-24-16 01:10am - 2943 days | #12 | |
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8MMM8 (0)
Active User  Posts: 4 Registered: Oct 24, '16 |
hi! I CCleaner did not help  | |
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| 10-24-16 01:13am - 2943 days | #13 | |
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8MMM8 (0)
Active User Posts: 4 Registered: Oct 24, '16 |
and to be honest I do not understand you may want to earn money through ransomware? They cause so much damage!  | |
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| 10-24-16 12:32pm - 2943 days | #14 | |
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Cybertoad (0)
Disabled User  Posts: 2,158 Registered: Jan 01, '08 Location: Wash |
According to a source they often use Facebook and Twitter, people think that the videos and links they click are virus free. Well the embedded script on Facebook may be safe until you click it and the sources malicious code goes active. Even friends can inadvertently send you a link or video you think is good to go. Obviously porn is used on many sites to install malware at the least to take over your PC at the most. ( free sites I should state, torrents etc) People have become way to conformable with the internet. Most people never would click a link in and email from a stranger yet will go to facebook and twitter and click all day long careful where you click, no matter where the source comes from. There is some protection from the sources by having script blockers on your browser ( not ad blockers script) Also SpyBot Search and Destroy is a good one in my opinion for keeping nastys at bay. Nothing is 100% but if one uses common sense thats a big part. Since 2007 | |
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