Hello. I was online looking up something for school and the ICSPA hack popped up on my school iPad. I didn’t read it entirely, but it said that it was an ICSPA warning saying I’m accused of watching banned porn (child porn, zoophilia, rape) and that I had to pay a $500 fee. I was so worried, because I thought it was real. It even showed my IP address, and I was worried if I didn’t pay right now, the police would go to my apartment building and arrest me despite only being a teenager. I pressed cancel on the locked page, but it just sent me to another weird pop-up that showed me how and where to pay the fine. I have never searched up child porn, zoophilia, or rape because all of those are disgusting as hell (especially zoophilia), and I am very aware of how they are illegal, since it’s all over the news. My question is how to get this virus off my iPad completely without losing my pictures and data?
ICSPA Hack, as known as International Cyber Security Protection Alliance Virus is a mobile threat that mainly targets iPhone and iPad users located in the UK, Ireland, Canada, the United States and Australia. This malware is categorized as Ramsomware that freezes Internet browser (usually on Safari or Chrome) and blocks users from accessing Internet by displaying a deceptive message supposedly from ICSPA or other federal agencies. It falsely accuses that you have violated Copyright laws, and your device has been used for visiting websites containing pornography, child pornography, and child abuse, so your Internet has been blocked for safety reason. The virus demands money for fictional crimes. It asks the user to go to Kmart, CVS, Walmart, or Walgreens and loads $500 on a Paypal, Moneypak, Ukash or Paysafecard prepaid card to pay the fine in 48 hours, or else your Apple ID will be blocked forever and criminal case will be opened against yourself. Even worse, the virus grabs a couple of different contacts from your phone and says that these contacts can be called up and interrogated as witnesses for your crime. And if you do not pay $500 fine, data including photos, videos and text messages will be erased. Infected users will be given an “OK” option which is at the bottom of this fake message but it won’t do anything to close the page. The page will not go away even after reboot. The hackers know well how to scare and fool people. They send such scary pop-up which utilizes JavaScript to hijack user’s internet browsers and display user’s IP address, location and make them think it is a real warning from International Cyber Security Protection Alliance. In fact, the ICSPA hack virus warning is fake and your device will NEVER be locked forever only if you manually remove the virus. Real department will not send you such warning or lock your browser alleging you’re guilty of a crime and ask you to pay something on the internet. This is a scam and do not fall into it.
Ransomware has been around for more than a decade. In the past years it was only detected on computers. However, since the mobile users are increasing every day so the scammers keep creating new scams in order to infect more and more users and extort as much money as possible. Usually people acquire the virus from hacked website or spam emails. They may get it by clicking malicious links or pop-up ads that come out of nowhere on the web browser. Once the virus is running, it will display an officially looking alert which reports about different kind of violations and asks paying the fine:
Country:
Region:
City:
Your Location:
Operating System: iOSYou are accused of viewing/storage and/or dissemination of banned pornography (child pornography/zoophilia/rape etc.) …
A few people may mistakenly pay for the fine because the ICSPA hack virus page looks so real. No one would like to get involved in the crimes. In order to avoid any troubles, they would rather pay the ransom because they are afraid of being caught by the police, even if some of them did nothing wrong at all. But can paying the fine really help to get Internet back? The answer is NO.
“I am freaking out. I had the ICSPA hack pop up on my screen saying where I lived and said that I was in violation of the law because I was looking up child porn and other illegal sites. And it said it could lead to 5-8 years and also a 500$ fine? Then it crashed my safari app. It scared the heck out of me and now i don’t know what to do. So I went to my local CVS about 15 minutes later and got a PayPal MyCash card and put $500 on it. Now my mind was totally scrambling because I didn’t even have the resources to look this up due to my internet and phone connection being down in my neighborhood. So I entered in the pin of the card I purchased and my screen said something along the lines of “YOUR PAYMENT WILL BE PROCESSED IN THE NEXT 24 HOURS” So, today around the same time I anxiously went to turn my phone on and the problem had not been solved. The ICSPA virus page was still on my Safari!! What should I do? Does it mean I just lost $500? How to I stop that? I am hoping that someone can walk me through to get rid of this virus. Please help.”
As mentioned above, ICSPA hack is a common scam on Apple users now. The warning is not real and it is not associated with the International Cyber Security Protection Alliance, FBI or any government departments. To unlock ipad/iPhone, ICSPA hack should be deleted manually.
We used to think that Apple iOS gadgets were pretty immune to viruses and malware. Sadly, over the past year hackers have turned their attention to our mobile gear. Usually, the installation of ICSPA hack Virus can be completed in a short time and then it pops up immediately to lock your iphone or ipad without signs if you visit a phishing site, open a junk e-mail attachment, click on an unknown link or download an application from an unsafe source. You will be easily get infected by this virus after you jailbreak your device.
It will block your Internet access once it is downloaded.
It will pretend itself as a legitimate warning to lock you out of Safari or Chrome browser.
It will not let you exit the blocked page even you have restarted the device a million times.
It can block all types of antivirus apps.
1. This message can run on iPhone, iPad, iPod or other Apple devices.
2. Don’t pay for anything or provide your personal information to this hoax, it won’t help unlock Safari/Chrome, but just waste your money.
3. Currently antivirus apps are unable to detect or remove this malware.
4. There is no anti-malware software that can detect 100% of the malware out there.
Since viruses are quite inevitable, there are some tips you can avoid being fallen into this scam in the future:
1. Be careful of downloading applications in the internet because many of them are just cloned applications. Visit legitimate app stores like Apple Store because it filters out the reliable application from what’s not reliable. Most viruses are from gaming and anti-virus applications which are forged. Before downloading an application, try to read some customer reviews so that you will be assured that it is truly a trusted app. Stick with apps from App Store and don’t jailbreak your device and install apps from third-parties.
2. Be cautious at opening attachments thru MMS, SMS messages and e-mails because you might open an unknown attachment from unknown sender. Never open any attachments which are suspicious to you.
3. Don’t open your Bluetooth connection when not in need. It would be easy for the virus to go inside the phone’s application and destroy the phone’s performance.
4. Read the permissions. Every app you install has to declare its permissions, meaning the app lists what it will have access to on your phone. Don’t just click OK without reading what the app will do.
ICSPA hack popup virus uses javascript to block user’s Internet access and prevent them from going online properly. It uses scare tactic to deceive people into paying the ransom without unblocking their device. Obviously it is a hoax. The virus rapidly spreads over the Internet and has infected thousands of devices at an alarming rate. There is no anti-malware apps that can delete the virus automatically. Worse still it won’t go away unless you have removed all its components step by step. Even in some cases it may disappear itself for a while to let you get Internet access back, but your device is still unsafe. It is still a threat for your privacy. To completely get this off iPhone or iPad, you can contact YooCare PC experts 24/7 online for help right now.
Published by & last updated on June 27, 2016 4:47 am
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