It seems almost too frequently that the latest scare announcement comes through. One which details the latest hack, vulnerability, malware, ransomware or otherwise has now been noted. Unfortunately, today is the next one as Blue Coat Labs are detailing today a new ransomware which is currently being dubbed ‘Dogspectus’.
The good news is that if you own an Android device which runs on Android 5.0 (Lollipop), 6.0 (Marshmallow) or even Android N, then this particular vulnerability will not be an issue for you. However, if you are running Android 4.x or lower, then it is possible this could be a problem. In particular, it is said to be especially dangerous for those running Ice Cream Sandwich or Jelly Bean. The downside however, is that you do not have to do very much to fall victim to this latest attack.
While most vulnerabilities like this require the end user to actually download or install an app (or what they believe to be an app) to take hold of a device, this one manages to achieve this by the user simply heading to a specific website. As a result, this is not a ransomware that requires the user to give permission for the desired effect to take place. Advertisements on the visited page are said to contain “hostile Javascript” which is loaded directly from the web page. This automatically leads to the downloading and installation of the ransomware app – all while no indications are providing to the end user. At which point, the software demands that the user pays up to have their phone restored back to its usual state. In terms of actual website that needs to be visited, this is one which is of the adult persuasion, although at present Blue Coat Labs have yet to specifically list the website by name. However, it is worth keeping in mind that this is an issue for some Android devices and more importantly, that it has the ability to infect without any direct downloading or installation required. Those interested in finding out more about this particular vulnerability can do so by reading the Blue Coat Systems posting through the source link below.