Sexbomb pop minstrel Taylor Swift PORN FIB used to lure fanbois

Miscreants have brewed up a FBI-themed ransomware scam aimed at Apple users that relies on malicious JavaScript code rather than a conventional trojan. The scam prompted a warning from the FBI-backed Internet Crime Complaint Centre on Thursday, and a denial that it was anything to do with the Feds. The ploy represents a …

[Anonymous Coward]

"Jerome Segura, a senior security researcher at Malwarebytes, came across the scam via a Bing Images search for Taylor Swift."

This was after doing Bing searches for photos of Alicia Keyes, Miley Cyrus and Selena Gomez. Who knew having a thing for young American female singers could be a career advancer.

PS. Yes, assume a joke icon.

[adnim]

Should I know

who Taylor Swift is?

Am I missing out on something that is essential for my continued existence and happiness?

[J 3]

Re: Should I know

I don't know about existence, but your happiness will be much obliged if go on not hearing her music. Pictures are fine though.

[Anonymous Coward]

Gosh

Not quite a malware issue, that it goes no further than your browser.

Re-set Safari, kill off the cookies and history and hey presto.

I don't think this will panic Mac user too much, and it's not like a windows infection that goes to the heart of the software is it?

[Velv]

"Ah, so you want to be a Security Research. Welcome. I'm afraid you'll need to start at the bottom of the ladder, spending all day searching the web for young attractive women"

Where do I sign?

[Mike Bell]

Don't Reset Safari

The advice in that video should be ignored. After force-quitting Safari, just hold down the Shift key when starting up Safari again, and it will duly oblige by not opening the last page it was looking at.

[Herby]

Taylor Swift is...

A female twenty-something singer/performer that some people drool over here in the USA. Your mileage may vary.

[Goldmember]

Re: Taylor Swift is...

Personally, I don't get it. I've seen her plenty of times in pictures, and she's certainly no Jessica Alba.

Plus, her 'singing' voice is whiney, weak and just plain awful.

[Beachrider]

Re: Taylor Swift is...

USA Country-pop just doesn't sell well with sophisticated European audiences, though.

[ShrNfr]

This is why they invented the NoScript add on. Also useful for blocking other things too.

[Anonymous Coward]

Does that even work in Safari? I thought it was for Firefox only.

I do use it, and it is useful. It is however, quite annoying when a website spreads the JavaScript it uses over about 30 separate hosts and domains. (TheRegister spreads itself over four!)

[Big-nosed Pengie]

"I do use it, and it is useful. It is however, quite annoying when a website spreads the JavaScript it uses over about 30 separate hosts and domains. (TheRegister spreads itself over four!)"

I find it quite useful. Any web site that does that and requires me to approve scripts from sites that I don't know and trust before it'll work gets an instant "close tab". Bloody idiots.

[Mystic Megabyte]

I use NoScript and Ghostery*.

This has the advantage of when you select "Temporarily allow all this page" in NoScript then Ghostery will put up a brief notification showing all the blocked trackers.

Try the Telegraph to see what I mean. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/

*and RefControl and BetterPrivacy and AdBlockPlus

[Crisp]

Jerome Segura, came across the scam via a Bing Images search for Taylor Swift.

Yeah, that's what I'd tell my employer too if I got caught doing an image search for Taylor Swift!

Uh! Security research! Look! There's a new Javascript exploit right there!

Now to look for images of Taylor Momsen...

[BornToWin]

The people who write and distribute...

...this SCUMWARE should be hung by their balls for about six months until they have a clue.

[Matt Newton]

I got this the other day browsing a torrent site. Hadn't clicked anything, suddenly my monitors all got covered in this warning - pic of a friendly police man with his arms folded and all this text about laws I'd violated including terrorism, violent or sadistic websites and child porn... but if, IF, I was to pay $99 to Nottinghamshire Police and super super promised not to do it again, it'd be viewed as a "caution" and it'd be ok.

What first alerted me to the fact it might be suspicious was that they were asking in dollars. That and the obvious :D

But yeah - I've seen it and that was on Chrome / Win 7.

Reboot fixed it. Scratched that torrent site off my bookmarks.

[SYNTAX__ERROR]

John Leyden

Still haven't succeeded in learning to write cogent sentences, I see.