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Here you are sitting in front of your computer, and you’re thinking to yourself;” You know today is the perfect day to go on some un-named sites.” That was a joke, no one ever thinks that. In fact, most people rarely think to stray away from their daily norms.
You get up out of bed, grab a cup of coffee, say hi to the cohabitator or fellow inhabitants, and then move on to go about your day online. This may be the case if you work from home, but for the rest of the world, it’s sitting in morning traffic and questioning the meaning of life while simulating The Belko Experiment in our heads.
Well, have you ever had that feeling after spending some time online, you logged out and called it a day but when logging out you feel like something is a little off. That feeling could be that random download that you didn’t care to stop but in case you thought that couldn’t be the case, let me explain how.
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R.A.T Vs Rat
What is this file that is taking residence on your computer? Well, look no further than you may have a rat in your midst. No, not the cute rodent that most people find disgusting because their cousins are often found running the subways of New York.
A side thing to note; they are actually clean animals; they just don’t get a fair shake. Us silly humans, we’re always fearing what we don’t understand. You may have a Remote Access Trojan (R.A.T), this is a type of malware that finds its way into your computer and can perform surveillance and can gain unauthorized access to your personal computer (PC).
RATs can behave in the manner of keylogger applications by automatically collecting information on keystrokes, usernames and passwords, browser history, and emails are a few things to mention.
They differ from keyloggers however, in the sense that RATs give the attacker the capability to gain access to unauthorized remote access to your PC. So if you could imagine, your boss who has a crush on you and is really good with computers, and since you may be working from home, somehow they take control of your computer, flip on the webcam and there you have it. You may not want to be walking around in your lounge clothes double-cheeked up when you’re supposed to be in work attire is all I’m saying.
Another lovely surprise is a backdoor is left open for the attacker to come and go as they please without you ever noticing. This can lead to changing the behavior of the machine, browsing, and copying files, and using your internet connection to perform some good old illegal activities.
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Hacking Motives
You may be thinking to yourself saying “This is nuts! Who would do such a thing?” Aside from your crushing hard-on-you creep boss, hackers – who could be anyone, they don’t look any particular way – would resort to using this tactic to get information for a wide array of reasons.
Scenarios could be collecting your information either selling it or using it as blackmail or performing some type of extortion with it, installing more malicious malware, or doing a combination of all the above.
What are some motives that would cause one to do this? Well in most cases it has to deal with people wanting money, it kind of makes the world go round you know. And in other cases, in the words of Bag-Head (I know that’s not his name but I’m calling him that anyway) from the movie The Strangers, it’s because you were home. This is said because there are some instances where an attack takes place simply because it was able to.
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Phishing for Mail-Order
Thinking to yourself now, “How do I stop something like this from happening to me?” Don’t know what age you are while reading this, but I grew up in the era when your parents would inform you, they were going to be leaving soon and you are going to be in charge of the house, firmly said “If someone is at the door and it’s not us, don’t open the door.”
That very saying still holds true, spear-phishing is one technique used in this attack. Any emails, website links, and redirected to download files or software received from unknown parties should be reported and removed immediately. Using anti-virus and anti-malware will aid in making sure the RAT isn’t able to work properly and assist in halting the collection of any information.
If a computer is infected and is linked to other computers, you should assume that all personal information has been compromised and immediately change login information from a clean computer. Following this credit cards and all financial activities should be monitored in the following months to catch any shady activity.
If you’re at work and find this has happened, get in contact with the system administrator and inform them of the potential threat. A well-known fact is that companies get hit due to complacency when checking emails. Yes, while a mail-order bride doesn’t sound like a bad idea, that potential risk to have your identity stolen or worst having the company’s PC corrupted could see you in line with hitting an iceberg.
Sarah: I never sent you a link. Wait, you bought what now!?
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