#and also false facts in the case of my old account settings haha | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

raeynbowboi · 5 years ago

Text

Dating Disney: The Black Cauldron

The Black Cauldron is a 1985 Grimdark fantasy movie based primarily on the first two novels of the Chronicles of Prydain series by Lloyd Alexander written between 1964-1968. A primary reference and inspiration behind the series being the Mabinogion, a collection of early Celtic myths written in Middle Welsh. The character names also follow a Welsh naming conventions as Fflewdder Fflam uses the “Double F” found in the Welsh language, as a single F by itself makes a [v] sound in the Welsh language. The name Taran is also Welsh, meaning Thunder. So the movie is very neatly rooted in Wales, or Welsh-speaking Albion.

The Mabinogion

The Mabinogion is comprised of 4 main branches recounting Welsh mythology, compiled in the late 12th-13th centuries based on older oral traditions likely dating back to some time between 1050-1225. However, there are many suggestions as to when the stories might date from. (To hear a story from the Mabinogion, check out Red’s summary of Pwyll, Prince of Dyfed.)

Now, you may be wondering “why is there only 1 book on all Welsh mythology?” and I’m glad you hypothetically asked because it’s time to blame the Christians. Seriously, because Celtic mythology is loaded with god-like figures, Christian interpreters when they came to Albion censored or outright destroyed stories that implied that there was more than their God. Figures such as the Irish Tuatha de Dannan, which were godlike ancestral figures, had to be recontexualized as Faeries, Spirits, or Angels in order to avoid censorship by the Christian monks who transcribed these myths. Brigid, a very important Irish goddess, was Christianized into the figure of Saint Bridgette. This was actually an attempt by Christian missionaries to ease the pagans into Christianity. Essentially the mindset of “yeah, you can worship your holy figures, but uh, cut it out with the holy divine aspect. We can’t have that. They’re clearly not as top tier as our God.”

You may remember from my Sword in the Stone discussion that I mentioned that Rome occupied Albion before Christianity wormed its way in, and you may be wondering, were the Romans this bad? Haha, clearly you underestimate how awful medieval Christians were. No, the Romans just viewed foreign pantheons as extensions of their pantheon. You have a sun god? So do we. It must be the same god with a different name. This is what’s referred to as Interpretatio Romana. So the Celtic Sun God Belenus would be referred to by the Romans as Apollo Belenus. It’s the same god, but the Roman name always came first. Compared to what is known as Interpretatio Christiana, which boils down to ‘you’re worshiping Satan in the form of a false idol. Stop that.’ So, when I say that our lack of written accounts of Welsh mythology is entirely the fault of the Christians, I’m completely sincere in that statement because the Romans didn’t censor Celtic myths or history, only the Christians did.

The Black Cauldron and Mythological Parallels

Prydain

It might sound like a generic fantasy name, but the name Prydain actually comes from the Welsh name for Great Britain, Prydain Fawr. Unfortunately, the term Great Britain dates to 1707. However, Prydain is also the medieval name for the island, as the Welsh never referred to the Island as Albion.

Henwen

Literally meaning “Old White” in Welsh, Henwen is a sow under the care of Coll, a pigkeeper for Dallwyr Dallben. In the Chronicles of Prydain, Coll is a character, but in the Disney film, Taran seems to have absorbed Coll’s role as pigkeeper. However, the fact that he refers to himself as an assistant pigkeeper could still mean that he is ranked below an off-screen Coll. However, the Henwen of Welsh mythology could not predict the future. It was known that Henwen was to birth something terrible, and so she was chased off a cliff into the sea in Cornwall. She survived however and went on to give birth to many unusual things, including a cat, a wolf, an eagle, and a single grain each of wheat, rye, and barley. And three bees. I really wish I was making this up.

Gurgi

Gurgi’s name might take inspiration from Gwrgi Garwlwyd, whose name literally means man-dog rough-grey. He was a warrior in Welsh Arthurian Legend, and was possibly a werewolf. Gwrgi was a monster that killed a man every day, and two on Saturday so he would not kill on Sunday. The Gurgi in the books is far more monstrous looking with horns, but Gurgi in the Disney film retains the dog-like traits of Gwrgi.

The Black Cauldron

Known in Welsh mythology as Pair Dadeni or “the Cauldron of Rebirth”, it is referenced in the second branch of the Mabinogion. Like in the movie, the cauldron has the power to revive the dead, and is destroyed when a living person is thrown into it, in the mythological case, Efnisien pretends to be a corpse and is thrown into the cauldron for revival, causing the cauldron to be destroyed. There are other similar magical cauldrons in Welsh and Irish mythology, including the cauldrons of Arawn and Diwrnach, which would not boil the food of cowards, and Ceriddwen’s Cauldron of Inspiration, which caused those who drank from it to gain infinite wisdom. There is also The Cauldron of the Dagda in Irish mythology. One of the 4 Treasures of the Tuatha de Dannan, the Cauldron of the Dagda was stored in the mythical city of Muirius, and no man would ever leave the cauldron hungry, for it produced infinite food.

The Horned King

In the novels, the Horned King is a minor villain, subjugated to Arawn, God of Death. However, in Welsh mythology, Arawn is not a death god. Rather, Arawn is king of Annwn, the Welsh Otherworld. Aka, the Faerieworld. See, this is another example of Christians mucking up translations and trying to force other religions to reflect Christianity, so Annwn is often treated as the Underworld of Celtic mythology, but considering Pwyll wanders into Annwn completely by accident, I don’t think that’s how it was interpreted in traditional texts. The Horned King may also draw inspiration from the Horned God, Cernunnos. Little is known about Cernunnos due to being a very ancient god, but his role as a horned god of the wilderness has historians guessing that he’s one of the oldest gods or divine archetypes in human history, as ancient horned gods pop up with surprising regularity in older religions: namely Baphomet and Pan. Cernunnos is also sometimes but not always folded in with the figure of the All-Father as a sort of father to all creation in Gallo-Celtic paganism. Cernunnos is often regarded as a god of nature and the wilds, but is also a psychopomp god that guides the dead to the afterlife, and maybe is also a god of death and rebirth as a part of life. Again, this is kind of very uncertain because of just how ancient Cernunnos is, so don’t take this interpretation as law. But despite how uncertain we are about what all this figure represents, he’s a very interesting deity none-the-less, and very likely contributed to the Christian idea of the devil as a horned figure with goat legs. As a seemingly undead creature, the Horned King may draw parallels to a creature known as a Revenant. A creature found in Celtic folklore, a Revenant is a vengeful undead that seeks to torment all life until it has found the person who wronged it while it was alive and exacts its revenge. However, it should be noted that in the books, the Horned King is a living man wearing a horned skull mask, whereas the movie version is very clearly a corpse.

Taran’s Sword

In Welsh mythology, the sword Dyrnwyn belonged to the great king Rhydderch Hael, and when held by a worthy man would glow with fire. In the books, Taran’s sword is indeed referred to as Dyrnwyn. Similarly, alongside the Cauldron of the Dagda, another treasure of the Tuatha de Dannan is the Claiomh Solais or the Sword of Light, housed in the mythical city of Findias. This may also be the mythical origin of Excalibur, though scholars have not made a direct, perfect connection.

Conclusion

With so much of the story pulling from the single source of the Mabinogion, we can boil down the likely setting to around when the stories were written as our general setting. Luckily, we can roughly guestimate to about when the Mabinogion might originate from, and the general look of the movie seems to match with this time setting. So, we’re looking at about 1050-1225, around the time that the stories in the Mabinogion might have started to be told, thus inspiring the events in the film.

Setting: Prydain (Wales/Isle of Britain) Kingdom: Kingdom of Prydain Era: High Middle Ages (1000-1250) Year: 1050-1225 AD Language: Middle Welsh

#dating disney #the black cauldron #disney #taran #eilonwy #gurgi #fflewdder fflam #wales #welsh #welsh mythology #mabinogi #the mabinogion #cernunnos #tuatha de danann #henwen #pair dadeni #gwrgi garwlwyd #arawn #annwn

1K notes · View notes

syzygyzip · 5 years ago

Text

Rendering of the Gamer’s Body

This essay examines how we collectively neglect the true subject of gaming, and what this neglect means for our conception of the medium’s artistic potential and psychological effects. It is informed by the following concepts, elaborated in other essays: game-entrainment postures of attention

There is an incredible poverty of language for analyzing video games. We can talk about some details: the specs, the mechanics, the assets, the sequence. However, we can barely begin to discuss theme or genre in any meaningful way. The genres that we do have named—FPS, moba, bullet hell, RPG—provide some utility through familiarity and association, but even by compounding them it is very difficult to convey the sense of what a game is like. This is, of course, because video games are primarily haptic and somatic experiences, a phenomenological field even more intimately subjective than the ethic/aesthetic responses that are typically the primary concern of conventional media.

It bears repeating: the actual subject of gaming is somatic experience. More than the graphics, animation, mechanics, gameplay, or gamefeel, it is rather the idiosyncratic distribution of attention among these elements that determine what a game is, what is the animal with whom you are negotiating. Or rather, it is the accumulation of those distributions that constitutes this animal, since the shape of one’s attention is continually morphing throughout the game, to suit different situations. But the variations of attention are typically threaded along by central themes or gameplay conceits, and even an abrupt shift in gameplay creates a posture of attention that is informed by the posture before.

Now, those conventional elements of gaming (graphics, mechanics, et al) naturally contribute to the somatic gestalt, but in most cases you could swap one or several of these elements, and it would feel like “the same” game. Asset swaps are the most superficial and obvious: playing Skyrim with outrageous character substitution mods changes the somatic animal only slightly. What about changing the inputs and therefore the haptic expectations? Playing Tekken with a fishing controller affects the somatic animal somewhat, but not radically. Despite the dramatic change in haptic response, there remains within the screen unchanged elements: aesthetic, timing, sense of weight, and so on. (Outside the screen, timing and sense of weight are likely altered through the haptic substitution, and this contributes to the somatic variance).

Description of these differences is difficult, but the somatic qualia of games are known to all. To some degree, it’s an inherent feature of digital media. We know that there is something-that-it-is-like to pick up a coin in Mario. We can recognize that it is of the same nature to pick up a ring in Sonic, or a doodad in Banjo-Kazooie. The form and function of these collectables can be totally distinct, from a gameplay perspective, but still identifiable as the same thing. In these examples, they are all attached to the same verb: “picking-up.” But the same somatic object can take on less familiar forms, and is still identifiable as the same. How about the credits sequence of Smash Ultimate? The player is flying through space firing bullets at swarms of targets. Though it superficially resembles the satisfactions of a shmup, the somatic object that results is similar to the picking-up examples. There is also Danger Danger, an arcade game exclusive to Two Bit Circus, an experimental LA venue, where the player rolls a ball through a minefield. Upon grazing the edge of the mine, it bursts with a little noise and gives you a yield of points. Nothing is being picked up in this case! But the somatic itch is the same.

When pressed, most players can account for their somatic experiences to some degree, but truly the language has not developed in any significant way. Part of the reason is the softness endemic to interactive media; for reasons besides the somatic, the affective responses are more beholden to subjective, inner experience. Maybe we need gamers (and game developers!) to get hip to poetry. Haha. Not really. But something in that zone. After all, poets are the mechanics of collective perception.

Brushing the Edge of Language and the Conversations We Could Be Having The postures of attention elicited by gaming are part of the reason that it is important to perform psychological readings of games. Whether or not the somatic relationship to the game actions is realized, they are still encoded in the unconscious of the body. By playing a game, players are inherently performing psychological self-mediation. This point is much elaborated in my essay on that subject.

The Dark Souls games are unusually sophisticated in this regard, so I find myself exploring them quite often. The somatic animals of Souls games are particularly well defined because of the meaningful relationships between the aesthetic, the mechanical, and the philosophical attributes of objects and scenes. The dynamism between these elements is always what produces the somatic animal, but in the case of Dark Souls these correspondences appear to be deliberately cultivated. An environment is never an arbitrary coat of paint over the gameplay of that sequence, and the same goes for the philosophical purport of the section. Therefore, even if someone is not considering the philosophical content of an area, they are still playing through the same subject from which that content derives. Knowingly or not, they participate in the philosophy. This is the negotiation with the somatic animal. That said, this is always happening in any game. But because of the lack of meaningful relationships between the components of the game—the organs of the somatic animal—our game experiences are too often disposable. However, if we cultivate our awareness of the somatic subject of games, if we begin to acknowledge this synaesthetic content, more appropriate language will emerge from it, and we can begin to build more refined and enduring games. (Of course, the language we currently have is already an obstruction to our imagination—right now, “refinement” sounds like we’re talking graphics and tight controls, and “enduring” is used to mean addictive! But we’re asking for much more.)

Let’s return to Dark Souls for a bit to experiment with something. If we were to discuss purely the somatic affect of some part of a Souls game, with no native language to employ, how would we do that? I suppose we should start with something conspicuous. So much of the Souls identity is its level design. From a bird's eye view, a psychogeographical reading of Dark Souls would assume something like a constellation of an area's archetype through its bonfires. It is the gestalt of these nodes and their tableaus that tells us what an area is "about" ... but what are these nodes individually? Facets of the underlying principle? Is there any way to develop this model further?

Bonfires are essentially checkpoints. Even in very old games, a lot of the time you'll find checkpoints after a set sequence or a "theme," and in that case, it's easy to correlate the checkpoint with its sequence. The identity of an area emerges clearly in such cases. For example, classic shmups often have keynotes to their challenges, like "this gauntlet is about curved arcs" or "this sequence is about vacillating from one edge to another."

Part of the praise for Dark Souls' level design comes from appreciation for tightly organized sequences and gauntlets. When these designs succeed, those sequences become just as memorable as bosses. In DS1 the Anor Londo archers segment, for example, stands out because it's a unique challenge. While the same general challenge of dodging projectiles through narrow passage may recur, it never feels quite the same; this is the only time you have to distribute your attention into this specific shape. Aiding the strong sense of identity is the fact that this situation is really only solved and overcome once.

Aesthetic components that contribute to that identity include the setting: a city whose architecture suggests it is “too big” for the player; and which is immaculately clean, and rests high in the heavens. This conveys intimidation, physically, culturally. It is bathed in twilight, conveying the promise of something. This particular sequence is on a steep incline, which supports both the feelings of being outmatched, and that of promise. Weaker projectiles (lightning) are thrown around the player on the way to this point. If a player learns they can tolerate these weaker missiles, they are then extra deflated when blasted back by the giant arrows. When the archers are eventually approached, they are revealed to be not mere people, but taller, heavier, with inhuman poise. The flavor of this intimidation, the atmosphere of the challenge, are appropriate to the nature of what the challenge is on a purely mechanical level. If the player were facing an identical sequence, but traversing along a wooden walkway over a swamp, or with goblins firing these arrows, or whatever, it would not form the same somatic experience. This is a very basic example of how the somatic animal derives in part from aesthetic elements, and how its character becomes clearer when they are related purposefully; but of course there are many more contributing organs in the body than these. The philosophical correlates tend to be more personalized: the great city in the sky could symbolize an authentic heaven to one player, a false authority to another, an astral realm of temptation to a third, and so on. Whatever associations a player accrues un/consciously as they face this challenge also join the somatic gestalt.

Most game analysis people are aware of the whole "games that teach by design" thing, but the conversation all too often resolves with the sentiment that it’s good when games do this. Or for developers, the question is "how do you build a game to do this?" In either case, example after example is thrown around, but there is no digging into the somatic affect of any of them. We recognize the satisfactions of the player’s progress, but we typically aren’t analyzing what qualities are being solicited by these challenges. Take the case of something like Megaman or Shovel Knight level analysis. "Okay, we introduce the concept of the disappearing platform: the first time is low risk, then it's higher risk, and requires a more precise jump. Then we introduce a new behavior in that same type of platform (and indicate visually) etc..." But there's something more to it. When you introduce a gameplay theme, and elaborate on it, and twist it, what is the accumulation of it? All we can say is "oh, it's the disappearing platform level" because we have absolutely no vocabulary to discuss this specific partition of attention that is being conditioned and developed, let alone the attitudes that correspond with it. There is something that it is like, somatically, to sink into a pattern, to sync with a game's expectation. Something is happening to the mind of the player as these micro-skills are being developed. It is not just forming new capacities to act within the game; it is the establishing of new recognitions of processes and situations, many of which have applications in other internal (psychological) events, or even in the external irl world.

The lack of available language isn’t due to laziness or intellectual disinterest; it is rather from our desensitization to the somatic experience. Wine tasting provides a handy allegory: being a good wine taster isn’t about describing the sensory experience in precise or beautiful language. Obviously that's an asset, but the essential skill is sensitivity to your own impressions, and being honest about them. This is difficult because there's little common cultural infrastructure around the sensation of taste, so people start muting themselves to their own impressions. Speaking far more broadly, we're given a wealth of data about the world around us that we are constantly ignoring, because we are conditioned to think it's irrelevant. When it comes to the somatic content of games, as anything else, coding the experience into language is not a cause of sensitivity atrophy, but a symptom! With or without the support of language, if you take time to be present with your somatic experiences—wine or games or anything else—they begin to unfold new dimensions, styles, flavors, shapes. And this content, even when elusive and unnameable, can be helpful in understanding the superficial gestalt.

Alienation from the Body My wish for the gaming world to develop deeper somatic sensitivies—and broader linguistic fluencies in service of them—is not just so that we can become more refined dilettantes of gaming, or even that better games will result (which they will). The longing mostly derives from what I feel is a necessity to understand these virtual worlds, because it is becoming clearer all the time that our participation in these worlds has unknown psychological consequences. There are at least two effects of gaming that are, according to Franco “Bifo” Berardi, already contributing to conditions of crisis. One is the dissociation of language learning from the bodily affect (this includes the somatic animals we’ve been exploring); the second is the virtualization of the experience of the Other. As I see it, these two are inextricable to some degree, and while the second effect is perhaps the more visible and the more dire, it is the first effect which is most pertinent to this essay.

It should be no surprise that in projecting one’s consciousness into a game, that person may begin to ignore the information of their body. Consider Chen Rong-yu, one gamer among many who, mind immersed in a game, straight-up dies in a gaming café. To cite a less extreme example, many of us have probably had the experience of a foot falling asleep, or becoming super hungry during a gaming session, unrealized until we put the controller down. Beyond these obvious body responses, there is a wealth of other, subtler information that our bodies are constantly giving us. Given our current relationship to the act of gaming, it is inevitable that some of this information will be ignored as we abstract our awareness more and more in a gaming session, confining ourselves to the virtual, becoming disembodied. Yet in this disembodied state, within the game, we are making choices, communicating, relating, learning, conditioning ourselves. There is still a fat pipeline of information coming through, but it is overwhelmingly mental, and minimally somatic. This is how language comes to resemble code. The somatic and affective material is lost as the abstraction becomes more extreme. (A look into the style by which gamer lingo mutates is a good indication of that!)

To really understand the inhumanity of this situation, Berardi, referencing Luisa Muraro, follows the somatic component of language to its primal place:

Access to language is fundamentally linked to the affective relation between the body of the learner and the body of the mother. The deep, emotional grasp on the double articulation of language, on the relation between signifier and signified in the linguistic sign, is something is rooted in the trusted reliance on the affective body of the mother. When this process is reduced to an effect of the exchange between machine and human brain, the process of language leaning is detached from the emotional effect of the bodily contact, and the relation between signifier and signified becomes merely operational. Words are not affectively grasping meaning, meaning is not rooted in the depth of the body, and communication is not perceived as affective relation between bodies, but as a working exchange of operating instructions. We can expect that psychic suffering will soon follow.

The disembodied linguistic state is not fully endemic to the time spent playing the game. With enough time and attention spent in the virtual, becoming accustomed to the “merely operational” abstraction of language, it begins to bleed into the irl. The person becomes unaware of the affective information of the body even while walking around in it. Since the body is the home of myth, and therefore meaning, and its affects are the substance of those structures, it is easy to see how alienation from the body often results in extreme nihilism. This is far more likely the primary link between video games and mass shootings, rather than the violent content of certain games. The actual violence of gaming is the severing of the person from their own somatic awareness.

If games continue to be addictive, while also sensational and superficial, inconsiderate of the way that their elements combine together and are digested in the unconscious of the player, we’re going to continue to find scores of gamers alienated from their own bodies and reduced to a state of hopeless nihilism. This doesn’t always turn violent, but it can. In many case the violence is self-directed. In the virtual world, our problems grow more complex, but they do not always necessitate any kind of affective fluency. In the meat-world, our problems grow more complex, and we still have our bodies, so the problems will therefore always comprise affective elements. As it stands, most of our crises demand greater affective fluency than before, but our collective time spent in virtual worlds has left that capacity to decay.

Sensibility itself is at stake, here. Sensibility is the faculty that allows human beings to understand those signs that are not verbalized, and that cannot be reduced to words. Sensibility (and sensitivity, which is the physical, erotic face of the non-verbal ability to understand and to exchange meaning) is the interpersonal film that makes possible the empathic perception of the other. Empathy (the ability to feel the pleasure and the sorrow of the other as part of our pleasure and sorrow) is not a natural emotion, but rather a psychological condition that is cultivated and refined, and which, in the absence of cultivation, can wither and disappear.

In asking for better language for talking about games, it must be stated that such language only really matters if it is used toward reconciling us with the body. Having a bunch of extra descriptors for games is not the point, the point is building comprehension of the gameplay experience. We know how to build games; we know how to execute actions in games. We have absolutely no idea how to play games.

___ Berardi, Franco. Heroes. p48-49

17 notes · View notes

floweringcryptology-blog · 7 years ago

Note

1, 2, 3, 5, 14, 19, and 24, for the questions for the mun/munday meme!

Another RP Questions for the Mun Meme

1. How’s your day?

Surprisingly okay :) It’s raining outside and really cold, but I’ve got hot cocoa, so it’s all good!

2. How many rp blogs are you currently running?

Two!

Enola was created in October, and then I picked up Jim Moriarty like 3 days ago. Jim’s blog is a little bit empty at the moment, since I have to log on and off to get into his account, but hopefully soonish, I’ll get that started.

3. Are there any inactive muse(s) you wish to bring back?

Jim was actually an inactive muse that I never did anything with that I’ve rebooted, but I haven’t actually had that many old muses. I had an rp blog for Enjolras from Les Miserables in 2015, but he retired beautifully. I don’t think I could write him how I used to, so it’s probably for the best that he stays inactive haha.

5. Which muse(s) do want to rp as in the future?

Ohhhhh boy there are?? So many?? I’m itching to try my hand at Rose Tyler, and simultaneously I want to attempt the 11th Doctor, but also I haven’t rewatched Doctor Who in years. Then there’s Leonard “Bones” McCoy from Star Trek, which I did private rp as for two-ish years. I miss playing him lol. Ohhh and Eliza Schuyler from Hamilton because I love her and identify with her waaay too much.

14. Are there other characters you drew inspo. from for your muse?

Yup! Enola’s got bits and pieces of Arya Stark, Natasha Romanoff and Ginny Weasley!

19. A plot you want to do one day for your muse.

AAAAAAA Uh oh boi this requires some setup. Here goes. So I’m picturing alternate S1, set during The Great Game, probably. And basically the premise is dark Enola. She runs away to London, and she needs a new identity to hide from the authorities who want to return her home. Being in the wrong place at the right time makes it so that she turns into the hands of one consulting criminal, James Moriarty, who most likely knows that she’s the Holmes sister and wants to exploit that. She’s employed to “fix” crime scenes in exchange for him helping her disappear. Meanwhile, Moriarty’s having his game with Sherlock and the cases are just? Not right? Something’s off about them and leads to false conclusions or no conclusions at all, and the good side kind of realizes that someone’s getting to the crime scene before them and tampering with stuff. They attempt to catch this person, and eventually figures out that it’s Enola. Cue a boatload of betrayal/family angst and Enola’s overwhelming self-hatred.

24. Random fact about the mun.

Mun is the same height as Muse - literally 5′0 and tiny lol

#the unofficial force #munday #the cipher is your scar (answered)

1 note · View note

neptunecreek · 6 years ago

Text

Sextortion Scam: What to Do If You Get the Latest Phishing Spam Demanding Bitcoin

You may have arrived at this post because you received an email from a purported hacker who is demanding payment or else they will send compromising information—such as pictures sexual in nature—to all you friends and family. You’re searching for what to do in this frightening situation.

Don’t panic. Contrary to the claims in your email, you haven't been hacked (or at least, that's not what prompted that email). This is merely a new variation on an old scam which is popularly being called "sextortion." This is a type of online phishing that is targeting people around the world and preying off digital-age fears.

We’ll talk about a few steps to take to protect yourself, but the first and foremost piece of advice we have: do not pay the ransom.

We have pasted a few examples of these emails at the bottom of this post. The general gist is that a hacker claims to have compromised your computer and says they will release embarrassing information—such as images of you captured through your web camera or your pornographic browsing history—to your friends, family, and co-workers. The hacker promises to go away if you send them thousands of dollars, usually with bitcoin.

What makes the email especially alarming is that, to prove their authenticity, they begin the emails showing you a password you once used or currently use.

Again, this still doesn't mean you've been hacked. The scammers in this case likely matched up a database of emails and stolen passwords and sent this scam out to potentially millions of people, hoping that enough of them would be worried enough and pay out that the scam would become profitable.

EFF researched some of the bitcoin wallets being used by the scammers. Of the five wallets we looked at only one had received any bitcoin, in total about 0.5 bitcoin or $4,000 at the time of this writing. It’s hard to say how much the scammers have received in total at this point since they appear to be using different bitcoin addresses for each attack, but it’s clear that at least some people are already falling for this scam.

Here are some quick answers to the questions many people ask after receiving these emails.

They have my password! How did they get my password?

Unfortunately, in the modern age, data breaches are common and massive sets of passwords make their way to the criminal corners of the Internet. Scammers likely obtained such a list for the express purpose of including a kernel of truth in an otherwise boilerplate mass email.

If the password emailed to you is one that you still use, in any context whatsoever, STOP USING IT and change it NOW! And regardless of whether or not you still use that password it's always a good idea to use a password manager.

And of course, you should always change your password when you’re alerted that your information has been leaked in a breach. You can also use a service like Have I Been Pwned to check whether you have been part of one of the more well-known password dumps.

Should I respond to the email?

Absolutely not. With this type of scam, the perpetrator relies on the likelihood that a small number of people will respond out of a batch of potentially millions. Fundamentally this isn't that much different from the old Nigerian prince scam, just with a different hook. By default they expect most people will not even open the email, let alone read it. But once they get a response—and a conversation is initiated—they will likely move into a more advanced stage of the scam. It’s better to not respond at all.

So, I shouldn’t pay the ransom?

You should not pay the ransom. If you pay the ransom, you’re not only losing money but you’re encouraging the scammers to continue phishing other people. If you do pay, then the scammers may also use that as a pressure point to continue to blackmail you, knowing that you’re are susceptible.

What should I do instead?

As we said before, for sure stop using the password that the scammer used in the phishing email, and consider employing a password manager to keep your passwords strong and unique. Moving forward, you should make sure to enable two-factor authentication whenever that is an option on your online accounts. You can also check out our Surveillance Self-Defense guide for more tips on how to protect your security and privacy online.

One other thing to do to protect yourself is apply a cover over your computer’s camera. We offer some through our store, but a small strip of electrical tape will do.

We know this experience isn't fun, but it's also not the end of the world. Just ignore the scammers' empty threats and practice good password hygiene going forward!

Example 1

I am aware one of your passphrase: password. Lets get directly to point. Not a single person has compensated me to investigate about you. You do not know me and you are probably wondering why you're getting this e mail?actually, I actually installed a software on the adult vids (sex sites) site and you know what, you visited this web site to have fun (you know what I mean). When you were viewing videos, your internet browser initiated working as a Remote control Desktop that has a key logger which provided me access to your display screen and also web cam. Right after that, my software program collected your complete contacts from your Messenger, FB, and email . After that I created a double-screen video. 1st part shows the video you were viewing (you've got a good taste haha . . .), and 2nd part shows the view of your webcam, and its u. You do have only 2 alternatives. We are going to understand these types of choices in aspects: 1st solution is to disregard this message. In this case, I am going to send your actual video clip to just about all of your contacts and thus you can easily imagine about the disgrace you feel. Not to mention should you be in a relationship, just how it will eventually affect? Number two choice will be to pay me $3000. We will think of it as a donation. As a consequence, I most certainly will without delay eliminate your videotape. You will keep going on your daily life like this never happened and you will not hear back again from me. You'll make the payment through Bitcoin (if you do not know this, search for "how to buy bitcoin" in Google).

Example 2

Hi, victim.I write yоu becаusе I put а mаlware оn the wеb раge with porn whiсh yоu hаve visitеd.My virus grаbbed all your рersonal infо аnd turnеd on yоur сamеrа which сaрtured the рroсеss оf your onаnism. Just aftеr that the soft savеd yоur с��ntaсt list.I will dеlеte thе сompromising video and infо if you pаy me 999 USD in bitcoin. This is address fоr рaymеnt : 1K2jNTLdbHEwaALQWKMeGoKLWD67Cb6q8BI give yоu 30 hоurs aftеr you ореn my mеssаge for making the trаnsactiоn.As sоon аs yоu reаd the mеssаgе I'll see it right awаy.It is nоt necessary tо tell mе thаt you hаve sеnt money to me. This address is соnneсtеd tо yоu, my systеm will dеlete еverything automаtically aftеr trаnsfer соnfirmаtiоn.If yоu nееd 48 h just reрly оn this letter with +.Yоu сan visit thе pоlicе stаtion but nobоdy cаn hеlp yоu.If you try to dеceive mе , I'll sеe it right аway !I dont live in yоur соuntry. So they саn nоt track my lосаtiоn evеn for 9 months.Goodbyе. Dоnt fоrget аbоut thе shame and tо ignore, Yоur life can be ruined.

Example 3

𝕨hat's up. If you were more vigilant while playing with yourself, I wouldn't worry you. I don't think that playing with yourself is very bad, but when all colleagues, relatives and friends get video record of it- it is obviously for u. I adjusted virus on a porn web-site which you have visited. When the victim press on a play button, device begins recording the screen and all cameras on your device starts working. мoreover, my program makes a dedicated desktop supplied with key logger function from your device , so I could get all contacts from ya e-mail, messengers and other social networks. I've chosen this e-mail cuz It's your working address, so u should read it. Ì think that 730 usd is pretty enough for this little false. I made a split screen vid(records from screen (u have interesting tastes ) and camera ooooooh... its awful ᾷF) Ŝo its your choice, if u want me to erase this сompromising evidence use my ƅitсȯin wᾷllеt aďdrеss- 1JEjgJzaWAYYXsyVvU2kTTgvR9ENCAGJ35 Ƴou have one day after opening my message, I put the special tracking pixel in it, so when you will open it I will know.If ya want me to share proofs with ya, reply on this message and I will send my creation to five contacts that I've got from ur contacts. P.S... You can try to complain to cops, but I don't think that they can solve ur problem, the investigation will last for several months- I'm from Estonia - so I dgf LOL

Example 4

I know, password, is your pass word. You may not know me and you're most likely wondering why you are getting this e mail, correct? In fact, I placed a malware on the adult vids (porn material) web-site and you know what, you visited this website to have fun (you know what I mean). While you were watching video clips, your internet browser initiated operating as a RDP (Remote Desktop) that has a keylogger which provided me access to your screen and also webcam. Immediately after that, my software program gathered your entire contacts from your Messenger, social networks, as well as email. What did I do? I made a double-screen video. 1st part shows the video you were watching (you have a good taste lmao), and 2nd part shows the recording of your webcam. exactly what should you do?

Well, I believe, $2900 is a fair price for our little secret. You'll make the payment by Bitcoin (if you don't know this, search "how to buy bitcoin" in Google). BTC Address: 1MQNUSnquwPM9eQgs7KtjDcQZBfaW7iVge (It is cAsE sensitive, so copy and paste it) Note: You have one day in order to make the payment. (I have a specific pixel in this email message, and at this moment I know that you have read through this email message). If I do not get the BitCoins, I will definitely send out your video recording to all of your contacts including family members, coworkers, etc. However, if I do get paid, I'll destroy the video immidiately. If you want to have evidence, reply with "Yes!" and I will certainly send out your video to your 14 contacts. This is the non-negotiable offer, so please don't waste my personal time and yours by responding to this email message.

from Deeplinks https://ift.tt/2M9Z2xS

#Deeplinks

0 notes