by CHICKMELIONfreelance
There are a few things on this earth that evoke a negative mental image en-mass except perhaps for mice in your kitchen, mosquitoes in your bedroom at 2:00am and hackers dumping Trojans on your computer. Interesting enough all have the same MO, sneaking in and feeding where they ought not to be (without permission that is) and leaving behind nothing but dirty little reminders of their presence. I believe these vermin have their excuses they console their consciences with, yet unfortunately the finger pointing tends to lead to the victim and their shortsightedness in protecting themselves. The truth of the matter is that the schemes of the schemer is quite sophisticated and ever evolving. Therefore staying one step on top of the game isn’t as easily done as it is to say. When it comes to the less scrupulous feeding from victims online the nature of the beast can be brutal and expensive. Here are a few reminders that you can help yourself with to lessen the risk of being a victim:
1)Be very careful about clicking on links, even from friends.
2)Run a full virus scan if you have clicked on a link and found yourself hostage to a rogue Malware site.
(Malwarebytes is a fantastic program, free with certain limitations and always updated. If backed into a corner, this can be your best ally.)
3)Delete the message with it’s link immediately.
4) Be prepared to change your passwords as a precautionary note.
There are three recognizable players needed in order to complete a successful blackmail marketing campaign. Aside from the obvious victim, as well as “he who gains most “ in the scheme (the hacker himself,) there needs to be a catalyst. The one who is funding and fueling the hacker’s greed. Unfortunately the catalyst may be entirely in the dark about the events that unfold and the victims that come of it... while others outright pay for the dirty deed in order to gain their own hijacking profits.
I was a victim not too long ago. Conversing on my IM with a trusted friend, and unbeknown to both of us, she was infected with a few trojans. As we chatted and exchanged information, (I am in the business of writing and design) she asks me if I sent her “these photos as well” ...and a link was provided. Thinking this was just a normal part of our exchange, I opened it. This trojan went directly into all my social site’s contact lists and my IM contact lists and rang everyone up on my belalf so I wouldn’t be alone in my misfortune. I was held hostage by a program that demanded I comply to one of three tasks all linked to two corporations: An American Survey outfit and an Information Provider via Cell.( Hororscopes, love predictions... you know.) I was threatened that if I didn’t provide my cell number or respond to the survey and risk being locked out of the program I was attempting to open. I took the three minutes they gave me to make my life and death decisions to note the websites of these two outfits, (so I had opportunity to contact them and inform them of the issue at hand.)
I checked to see what these two had in common aside from a black mail hacker? What I noticed immediately was a loud and persuasive call for affiliates. There in lies the problem. An affiliate can make good money hijacking his meal ticket behind the guise of a business relationship. all the while trashing reputations. If you are offering an affiliate program you really need to be conscious of the unsavory element that is capable of just about anything to make a quick buck at your expense. Here’s a few things you can do:
1) Make it a policy to check out each and every affiliate you are considering to take on. it may be a Tedious task, but it just takes one bad apple to ruin your corporate image for you.
2) Beware of any potential fly by night businesses, look very close at affiliates who have just recently opened for business, our hacker isn’t going to keep his shop open for too long before they pack up the shingle and run to the next outfit.
3) Keep a close eye out for affiliates that are racking up business beyond what is statistically proven to be the norm. Incorporate a means of verifying these leads and appropriate action needed to take when an affiliate is suspect. The leads you gain from suspect affiliates will only stick with your business temporarily and grudgingly. The sour taste that is left in their mouth will stick to you for quite some time. they will remember who you are and rest assured they will pass their information on.
It’s a plague, it really is and the least likely victims are coming forwards with press releases shaking their heads. To give you an idea of the scope and seriousness of the situation a slightly different attack landed on the laps of the better Business Bureau in states all across America . A n e-mail “complaint” supposedly originating from them was sent out to accredited and non-accredited companies of all sizes. The bureau at this moment has no idea how their e-mail contact list was compromised, however the goal of the e-mail was to get the recipient to click on a hyperlink. It downloads malware to recipient’s computers, designed to damage or initiate unwanted actions. Which may have included harvesting logins and passwords and forwarding them to the e-mail’s author.
Everyone is a potential victim so everyone needs to gird up and be extra vigilant. In the very least keep the potential threat at the back of your mind at all times so your actions become habit and keep a good Virus program updated and at the ready. One thing I do know about this whole situation ...karma has a wonderful way of knowing full details of everything that goes down, for the amount of voices that are lifted on a global scale every time a scammer runs an internet blackmail scheme... I wouldn’t want to be them when karma meets up with them sevenfold.
