New malware waits until you watch porn, then secretly films via webcam

You may have heard about those emails from scammers who say they have nude photos of you and try to get you to pay money to prevent their release. For a long time, those emails were just that: scams.

But now there’s a real threat. A new malware called Stealerium apparently knows when you’re viewing pornographic material in your browser and automatically takes snapshots of what you’re viewing and webcam photos of you in that moment. The malware then sends those recordings to cybercriminals who use them for blackmail.

Security researchers at Proofpoint have analyzed the malware and warn of a new escalation level in these so-called “sextortion attacks.”

How Stealerium gets onto your PC

The Stealerium malware is spread via phishing emails that look deceptively genuine. The attackers dis