‘Porn pusher’ hacks locals social accounts – IT expert explains how
An internet technology specialist whose own business website fell victim to a hacker says it could have happened in one of two ways.
POLOKWANE – Several residents, a school and a few business have fallen victim to this specific cybercrime – Herman de Wet, an internet technology specialist whose own business website fell victim to a hacker says it could have happened in one of two ways.
1. Flash upgrade
He said either the target sees a fake message asking him to upgrade Flash to see a video and when the “upgrade” button is clicked on, the hacker gains access.
2. “Upgrade” free of charge
This is done by sending them a ransomware (a type of software that restricts access to a computer system that it infects and demands that the user pay a ransom to the operators of the software to remove the restriction) by e-mail, which instantly encrypts every file that exists on the system.
These files are destroyed or linked to several pornography websites, he said.
“These people have no idea of the kind of damage they cause others. Their little games cost people a lot of money and destroy reputations,” De Wet said.
When a Facebook account has been hacked, assistance can be found on the Facebook page: FB Page Hacked – Help Center.
This page can also be liked to receive regular updates from Facebook on hacking issues and warnings.
Victims of hacking
Several people in the city have had their personal Facebook pages hacked. One victim, a police official said that family and friends received messages with a link to a pornographic site.
“I had to apologise profusely and convince them that it was not me but that my Facebook page had been hacked.”
Others say their websites were hacked; “it cost a lot of time and money to recover the corrupted data.”
Hoërskool Pietersburg (PHS), one of the recent victims says their website was hacked and linked to several porn sites.
“The school had to pay to have their website restored. We were very fortunate in that our service provider contacted me immediately when he picked up on a virus that was on the website.”
“On investigation we found that a hacker had placed a link on the school website advertising a pornography site and had also downloaded a virus onto the system that was running our website,” PHS spokesperson, Anna-Marié Schoeman explained.
