There's been a lot of talk about webcam safety this week, after reports surfaced that Mark Zuckerberg uses tape to block his webcam. We should all follow suit because of the Remote Access Trojan. Hackers use RATs to spy on unsuspecting victims, exploit them, and make money off of them. And to make matters worse, they openly brag about it on hacking forums.
According to the definition on Webopedia:
Abbreviated as RATs, a Remote Access Trojan is one of seven major types of Trojan horse designed to provide the attacker with complete control of the victim's system. Attackers usually hide these Trojan horses in games and other small programs that unsuspecting users then execute on their PCs.
The RAT is nothing new, and is used in everything from banking schemes to cyber espionage. The most alarming part of the whole situation is the online forums, which provide step-by-step guides to takeover webcams and spy on unsuspecting women whom the hackers refer to as 'slaves'
Hiding in plain sight
These posts are not hiding deep in the Dark Web, but instead posted on the open internet for anyone to see.
"Looking to buy installs for my LL Rat. Make me an offer here of PMing me. Will pay extra for Canadian slaves and maybe even American slaves," one poster wrote.
This isn't isolated. On the same forum a post titled "Rat Hot Girls, 50+ installs a day" is advertising an e-book that appears to sell for $7. Several other anonymous posters left reviews under the advertisement claiming that the book is the real deal.
This content isn't just available on forums, but also sites like YouTube. A quick YouTube search of "RAT Tutorial" pulls up more than 3,000 results.
The person who posted the video starts out by saying that he will get banned for posting the video to YouTube. YouTube apparently has no issue with the post, as it has now been online for seven months and has around 20,000 views. There are also videos of successful RAT attacks showing unsuspecting victims and links to download everything you need to launch your own attack.
Better safe than sorry
Webcam access is only the beginning of the problem. If a computer is infected with a RAT, then the hacker has access to documents, emails, pictures, and anything else stored on your computer. It suddenly makes perfect sense as to why Mark Zuckerberg puts tape over his microphone and webcam; we all should. Not only is online sex trafficking and exploitation booming, but it's all happening in plain sight. As the old saying goes, "It's better to be safe than sorry."
