More than ever, hacking is a reality that people are aware of. And social media, for better or worse, is an effective tool for raising awareness about the dangers of social media. However, not everything is real danger.
These days a set of publications are circulating on Facebook that reflect a chain shared via WhatsApp, with photographs of the Moroccan earthquake, which occurred in September, near the city of Marrakech. These same publications state that, if the user downloads the photographs, a file called “CARD Seismic Waves” will be transferred, which will cause the cell phone is hacked in 10 seconds, in a process that cannot be interrupted.
El Observador spoke with Bruno Castro, founder of VisionWare, a computer security consultancy, who summarizes this warning with relative ease: “It’s bullshit!” The computer engineer explains that “It is simply a creation of population alarmism on meaningless social networks”.
Bruno Castro adds that the earthquake in Morocco is not even the first catastrophe to which this false alert is associated: “It already happened in an earthquake in Colombia, exactly the same thing, the same concept. It serves to create alarmism, misinformation and social fear.”. And in fact, with an Internet search it is possible to find references to this alert created in relation to an earthquake in Colombia in 2008.
Even from a technical point of view, the IT security specialist raises problems related to this alert: “There is no data file of this type available. What they claim is really dubious, hack a phone in 10 seconds with a picture is not technically credible. That is not how it works.”
Conclusion
The alert is false. Images of the Moroccan earthquake do not circulate on WhatsApp, which when downloaded hack mobiles in 10 seconds. Bruno Castro, founder of the computer security consultancy VisionWare, explains to the Observer that this is an alert that is not even unprecedented and that only serves to create alarmism, fear and misinformation. “There is no technical or contextual support, there is nothing to get,” explains the specialist.
Thus, according to the Observer classification system, this content is:
MISTAKEN
In the Facebook classification system this content is:
FAKE: claims about the main content are factually inaccurate. Generally, this option corresponds to “false” or “mostly false” ratings on fact-checking websites.
NOTE: This content was curated by Observador as part of a fact-checking partnership with Facebook.
Source: Observadora
