We all know that a new kind of ransomware is spreading these days. It’s posing as a video player app and uses Global XMPP chat to contact server. It can be difficult to know if an app is legitimate or not so we need to be more careful when downloading a new app. Zscaler recently discovered a new one that pretends to be an Adult Player. Admit it or not, adult-themed apps have a huge market so a lot of people can be duped into downloading one.
This particular ransomware poses as a pornographic video player to attract more victims who would want the app. Called as the “Adult Player”, this porn app works discreetly and annoyingly because it takes a selfie photo of the phone owner and then would display the image with a ransom message demanding for a $500 ransom.
Seeing your photo with a disturbing message as a result of your downloading a porn-related app can be really scary. Imagine that kind of horror because it’s embarrassing. You don’t want it to spread so what you’ll do is just pay that huge amount of money. It’s pretty much more like a blackmail since the device owner is supposedly doing something funky that honestly, you don’t want other people to know.
Zscaler talked about how the ransom screen remains despite rebooting the phone. You can’t even use the device properly because the ransom screen is always active. If you see that kind of message, you really have no choice but to pay. You can’t even uninstall the app but Zscaler gave tips on how to remove such. First, boot device into safe mode so it will boot the phone with default settings. Then remove administrator privilege by going to Settings> Security> Device Administrator, select the particular ransomware app, and then deactivate by going to the Settings> Apps> Uninstall ransomware app.
The solution seems easy to do but the best way to prevent this from happening is to download on those from reliable and trusted Android app stores like Google Play, says Zscaler. To be sure uncheck ‘Unknown Sources’ option under the Security settings on your phone.
Read more details about the Android Ransomware on Zscaler Research’s website
VIA: Zscaler
This ransomware is on the internet for 5 years I think. But this scheme on the mobile apps is brand new. Hope people will not fall for this. But I wonder why would you need more unsecure apps when sites like Chaturbate and FapShows have their own secure apps.