Monday, October 29, 2018
Special Announcement: The Cherry on My Crap Mondae
Play Now!'Nuff said.Addendum: Never mind. It was a fishing attempt. It's amazing what 2 hours of sleep and a really crappy day will do to one's brain, though. Ah, fatigue!That said, I'm going to leave this snippet up just because it jives nicely with a topic I've been mulling about for some time now. Having this snippet will kick-start me into turning that snippet into a full-blown episode.Thanks for your attention. Carry on.—Jim
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Overwhelming odds it's a bluff. The email seeming to be from yourself doesn't mean your email's been hacked, either. The basic protocols used for email don't authenticate that. (Some email clients warn when email might be from not who it claims to be from, but some don't.) Ransomware that encrypts files is real, but when someone can run code on your machine they demonstrate that by running code on your machine, not by sending you an email.
ReplyDeleteIf that password is actually yours, the only likely-real part is that password was compromised _somewhere_. Change it (to unique passwords) where that's still used. If you're really paranoid, also change the password on accounts which previously used that password, and check account contact info and forwarding settings for those accounts.
There's been a rash of these extortion attempts lately, using compromised passwords in an attempt to bolster the credibility of a total bluff. The common script has been to claim the password is for a porn site and threaten "we've hacked your webcam and will send video of your onanistic jam sessions to all of your F***book compadres". The hope is to luck into panicky pornhounds whose other vice is reusing passwords. Guess they're branching out into other malware attacks to pretend to have made.
Thanks, L33t. Everything you said was what I was holding in mind as reasons to all but completely disregard the mail. Still, as I explained in the Addendum, I was running on 2 hours of sleep and the stress of a really hectic work day, which, it seems, overwhelmed my more rational appraisal of a threat assessment.
DeleteAnd yes, the script claimed to be shocked——shocked!——at my download history, one which in real life I would be happy to share with my Mother. (I'm pretty boring IRL, online habit-wise.)
My brother chimed in and noted that LJ was hacked a few years ago. And yes, I think the password bragged about was from LJ, but I can't remember. If it was, it was from years ago. Since he had at least three accounts there over the years, he gets a few of these fishing attempts a day.
Anyhoo, thanks again for your expertise!
——Jim