Beware The Siren Song Of Porn: Ransomware "Adult Player" Hijacks Devices And Demands $500 "Ransom"

You’d think that after the Ashley Madison scandal, people would wise up and steer clear of pornography. However, Zscaler's Shivang Desai reported the presence of an Android App in the wild that not only steals data from the user, it also holds the user’s device for a $500 USD ransom.

Shivang Desai reported on the Zscaler ThreatLabs Blog about the rogue app’s mechanism, and how to remove the malware, but there were no statistics on the number of Android users who have downloaded the app.

The ransomware app, named “Adult Player,” is not available on the Google Play store. But those who download and install it will find that the app will take photos of them using their Android’s front camera. Then they’ll find their device locked, until they fork over $500 USD via PayPal.

As Richi Jennings of IT Blogwatch for Computerworld wryly says:

“It’s episode #529 of “Stick to the Google Play Store, […] When will people learn?”

A reader can almost hear the hair-tearing frustration from that one sentence. But indeed, techies and security Nazis cannot reiterate it enough: The first and almost all-powerful gateway for malware and hackers to enter into a system, any system, even a Unix-based system, is a user’s permission. So unless an Android user wisens up about the apps and services they sign up for, malware, even ransomware, such as this, these apps will be able to find victims, and earn handsome sums for criminal activity.

Should an Android user find themselves in such a predicament, take note that security experts do not advice paying for their lives and their details via the “ransom demand.” So either kiss your device goodbye, or follow the steps that Zscaler details in their blog.

Zscaler is a security firm, and it maintains a blog alerting techies and netizens about the presence of malware threats that abound.

For more details on how to fix the ransomware infection, head on over to the Zscaler ThreatLabs Blog: https://research.zscaler.com/2015/09/more-adult-themed-android-ransomware.html

For more on Droid Report’s notes on the Ashley Madison hack, here you go: https://www.droidreport.com/life-got-too-short-ashley-madison-its-39-million-users-10862