To preface this scam, we need to first appreciate the scope of another Internet vice: pornography. Explicit adult material makes up a full 30 percent of the content on the Internet, and pornographic websites see more traffic than the combined totals for Amazon, Twitter, and Netflix. In short, there’s a lot of porn out there, which may be why this particular scam has been somewhat successful.

How this Scam Plays Out
The majority of scams are run in order to steal money from a victim, and this one is no exception. Also like many others, this scam features some extortion--give us what we want, or we’ll share your dirty little secret with the world.

This time, the secret is particularly dirty, according to the email that kicks off the scam (which starts, by the way, by identifying one of the target’s passwords in the subject line):

“You don’t know me and you’re thinking why you received this email, right?

Well, I actually placed a malware on the porn website and guess what, you visited this web site to have fun (you know what I mean). While you were watching the video, your web browser acted as a RDP (Remote Desktop) and a keylogger which provided me access to your display screen and webcam. Right after that, my software gathered all your contacts from your Messenger, Facebook account, and email account.

What exactly did I do?

I made a split-screen video. First part recorded the video you were viewing (you’ve got a fine taste haha), and next part recorded your webcam (Yep! It’s you doing nasty things!).

What should you do?

Well, I believe, $1400 is a fair price for our little secret. You’ll make the payment via Bitcoin to the below address (if you don’t know this, search “how to buy bitcoin” in Google).”

At this point, the email provides the user with the means to deposit a ransom of $1400 worth of Bitcoin. The email even advises them to copy and paste the required alphanumeric code so there are no mistakes made. The email then ends with a blood-chilling ultimatum:

“Important:

You have 24 hours in order to make the payment. (I have an unique pixel within this email message, and right now I know that you have read this email). If I don’t get the payment, I will send your video to all of your contacts including relatives, coworkers, and so forth. Nonetheless, if I do get paid, I will erase the video immidiately [sic]. If you want evidence, reply with “Yes!” and I will send your video recording to your 5 friends. This is a non-negotiable offer, so don’t waste my time and yours by replying to this email.”

Clearly, this is not the kind of news that anyone wants to hear. A few versions of this threat have been circulating, but all share the same essential message: cough up the dough, or your private activities will be made very public.

No Need to Panic… Yet
First, you need to know that this threat is an empty one, as gut-wrenching as it is. The biggest clue? The fact that the passwords this threat shared come from a decade-or-so-old hack of some database. Ideally, you would be able to see the password and think, “Wow, it’s been a while since I used that!” However, there are still lessons to be learned from these scam attempts, especially considering how successful this one has been so far.

By collecting ransoms of $1400, this scam racked up a total of well over a quarter of a million dollars in just over a month. This tells us a few things, the two most important being that people are not changing their passwords nearly often enough, and that threats like these are only going to continue, and may soon be more than just empty threats. Consider how many of your devices have a front-facing camera - there’s a better chance than not that some cybercriminal has some footage of you from some point in time. Whether or not you’re doing anything potentially embarrassing in it… that’s another story.

Protecting Yourself from these Attacks
When avoiding attacks like these, the name of the game is proactivity. This goes double whenever your passwords are a part of the equation, too. Proper password management is not something to procrastinate on. Yes, it can be a pain to remember so many different passwords, and to keep changing them just when you’ve remembered them, but there are password managers and other solutions to make it easier for you without short-changing your security.

Speaking of your security, you may want to take a few seconds to make sure that your webcam is covered up if you don’t need to use it. Whether or not you’re going to do anything private, you’ll be safe from peering eyes.

For more help protecting yourself from cyberthreats and otherwise optimizing your business’ use of the IT at its disposal, reach out to Patriot Tech Services Inc. at 877-874-4629.

Today the facility operates as a subsidiary to Google’s parent company, Alphabet. Project Loon, however, has broken out of X and is now its own subsidiary of Alphabet. Its goal is to provide Internet to places that don’t have it with the use of high-altitude balloons. Some of the speeds are said to be up to 4G-LTE. Here’s how it works:

The high-altitude balloons are launched and are remotely moved into place about 18 km (11 miles) above the ground. Experts have determined that, at this height in the atmosphere, relatively low wind speeds create minimal turbulence; and, since the company can model approximate wind speeds for all seasons, they can keep the balloons between 18-to-25 km above the ground over a specific area. They do this by adjusting the volume of gas inside the balloon.

Reasons for Development
The main reason this technology was to be developed was simply that people in certain areas either don’t have access to Internet service or the service that is available is so expensive that it was basically unaffordable. For example, the first person to ever connect to Project Loon was a farmer from New Zealand who did have Internet available to him, but the cost (over $1,000 per month) was untenable for that farmer. Project Loon would give people like this--and there are billions of them--the affordable Internet they don’t have access to today.

The Benefits of Internet Access
Most of us take this for granted since most of us have access to some pretty incredible Internet speeds, but for the people who don’t, it can really put them behind. Think about how you use the Internet daily for work, for your personal life, your home life, and for something as simple as driving directions. Then realize that half of the world’s population doesn’t have access to any of that. The Internet brings access to information, enhanced communications, financial flexibility, productivity options that simply aren’t possible without it, and much, much more.

Delivering Internet today is like delivering electricity and clean water. Today’s society requires a degree of Internet accessibility. As a result, Project Loon could really be viewed as a humanitarian effort; and could be just the thing these developing regions need to get the opportunity to join the world community.

If you would like more information about Project Loon, you can check out their website at http://loon.co, and be sure to check back to Patriot Tech Services Inc.’s blog for more great technology information.

What is SaaS?
SaaS is a software that is accessed through the Internet. This is often provided through a service provider, a developer of the software or a third party authorized to sell or distribute it under certain conditions. The user can use the software as indicated in the service level agreement for a monthly fee. The cloud provider is responsible for hosting, management, maintenance, development, and security of the application, making it both an attractive and hands-off approach for businesses.

The Benefits of SaaS
A change from on-premise software hosting delivers three distinct benefits for your business. They are the following:

• Eliminating hardware costs: Since you pay the developer per month for the use of their software, you don’t have to host the hardware on your infrastructure at all. This frees up a lot of extra capital that could be better spent elsewhere.
• Eliminating management costs: Businesses don’t have to manage or maintain the system, making for a significant cost reduction.
• Enabling remote accessibility: Any device can access a SaaS application through the Internet, allowing for access anywhere with available bandwidth.

Issues with SaaS
Nothing is perfect, even though it seems SaaS provides perhaps the biggest edge you can think of for a software solution. Some organizations must adhere to compliance regulations, which can in-turn affect cloud-based deployment of specific data or functionality. Since most cloud-based SaaS offerings are deployed through the public cloud, users’ applications are accessed using shared resources, which might rub some organizations the wrong way. Here are some of the major problems created by SaaS:

• Potential downtime: Any solution hosted in an online environment runs the risk of downtime. Since downtime is so expensive, you need to monitor how much downtime your organization actually suffers from when using SaaS to make sure it’s actually turning a profit for you rather than becoming a cost.
• Cost: If you’re paying a developer for monthly access to a web-based service, there’s a good chance that it will ultimately cost your business more in the long run than buying it outright. While there is a big benefit to smaller monthly payments compared to purchasing the license, when you’re considering multiple subscriptions to services, it can quickly grow overwhelming.
• Data security: Since your organization doesn’t play a role in hosting cloud services, you’ll never know just how secure your data actually is. This might make you question how reliable these services actually are.

Overall, software as a service can be a great value for your organization… if it’s managed properly. If the public cloud scares you, there is always the option to work with a third-party MSP who can host your services privately on their own server. Patriot Tech Services Inc. can help you with this. To learn more, reach out to us at 877-874-4629.