We Know What You’ve Been Doing

Twice this week I received ransomware spam in the mail saying that they know I’ve been looking at porn sites and they’ve captured me on my own webcam as I’m watching videos on my laptop.  And if I don’t send money to this bitcoin link the threat is that they will send the video to everyone on my contact list.  The redneck received a few of the same ransom notes.  We aren’t paying obviously .. so MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of our friends  … and you may not want to open any videos you receive from us this week.

It’s amusing to us of course, for a variety of reasons .. but for some people this strongly worded email could put the fear of dog in their ergonomic chair.  Moreover, the one I received tonight had a password in the subject line.  

You can see this hoax discussed here:  New Scam Sends User Password.  Admittedly it’s jarring to see one of your private passwords in the subject line of an email. I get it.  That hits home.  Wait a minute?  If this cybercriminal knows my password, what else is true?  Are they capturing keystrokes?  Can they break into my bank account?

So whereas this ruse about porn sites is complete bullshit … what about the fact that a password was used in the message, what should you do?

In my case, and many others .. they were OLD PASSWORDS, likely from a compromised site from years ago.  I went through my old records to trace down where I used that legacy passcode and I have a pretty good idea which data breach was used.  In the odd chance you didn’t actually CHANGE your password, this would be a good reminder to go and do so NOW.  Heck, we are approaching 2019 why not start the new year with new passwords for all of your critical social media, financial and shopping sites?

Help spread the word, so people aren’t scammed into paying ransomware.  And why not take this opportunity to talk to your partner about your viewing habits.  😉  Start the new year off with no surprises, ye?