Mark Linnhoefer – A cybersecurity company called “Zscaler” discovered a porn app called “Adult Player” is ransomware” software that locks the phone and asks for a payment to unlock it. What sets this particular ransomware apart is that it snaps a picture of the user and shows it in a FBI-style ransom notice.
The malware snapping a picture of you is pretty damn creepy, but as it is quite easy to get rid of, it’s only a mild shock with no real threat behind it.
This kind of electronic blackmail is nothing new though. The avid adult film viewer may have experienced it on their PC in the early 2000’s where AdBlock was unheard of and downloading porn from shady, flashy sites was the norm. This malware is less common on PCs nowadays, but it is apparently experiencing a new surge on mobile devices. Avoiding it is quite easy though – stick to apps from the official store and you probably won’t run into any trouble. Or just download your adult movies safely on your PC and then transfer them to your mobile device so you’ll have them on the go.
Zscaler says that so far twelve people have had their phones locked by the “Adult Player” malware which require payment via a “My Cash” gift card from PayPal. The cybersecurity company has published a method to disable the app without having to go through the hassle of creating a PayPal account:
- Reboot your device in ‘safe mode’
- Go to the settings
- Go to “Device Administrator”
- Deactivate the “Adult Player”
- Go back to the settings
- Go to “Apps” and uninstall the damn thing
So, use your brain when you want to watch porn on mobile devices and steer clear of the “Adult Player”, as tempting as that name may sound to some.
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