On September, news of malware hitting porn sites and freezing computers for ransom money broke out, threatening users who frequent websites like Pornhub.com, Youporn.com, XHamster.com and other adult web sites.
Now, a newly-conducted research indicates that the malware that hit XHamster, PornHub and Youporn last September is becoming an increasing threat, not just on full websites but to mobile porn sites as well.
Malware advertising and ransomware are now targeting mobile phones increasingly, according to Blue Coat System's Mobile Malware Report.
"The world of mobile ransomware has grown dramatically over the past year," the report read. "While some varieties that run on Android devices cause little damage beyond convincing victims to pay the cyber hostage-taker, many have adopted more sophisticated approaches common to ransomware in the Windows environment."
Blue Coat's report revealed that people behind the malware that commonly hit porn sites this year are maneuvering their way into mobile phone systems to anonymously encrypt their victims' personal data (like videos and photos) - like kidnapping a person or holding them hostage. To decrypt the stolen data, victims are demanded to pay ransom money.
The research on ransomware and malware also indicated that porn sites like Youporn, Pornhub and XHamster are the more commonly used "infection vector" or in simpler words, bait for unsuspecting users, in fact, 36 percent of visitors re-directed to malicious websites came from pornography sites.
"Cyber criminals are waiting to take advantage of the data these devices collect, as evidenced by the types of malware and attacks we're seeing," Blue Coat CTO Dr. Hugh Thompson said in a statement.
"The implications of this nefarious activity certainly carry over to corporate IT as organizations rapidly adopt cloud-based, mobile versions of enterprise applications, opening up another avenue for attackers," Thompson added.
The data gathered by the Blue Coat research coincides with a separate Kapersky Lab study, which detected over 323,374 mobile apps with malware or ransomware.
However, Tripwire.com senior security analyst, Ken Westin recently pointed out that ransomware and other malicious ads online do not usually come from apps found in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store - they usually come from apps directly downloaded from websites.
